


Dreams and Desires

by LaLloyd271



Series: (Placeholder Title for Ongoing Llorumi Series) [1]
Category: Lego Ninjago
Genre: Angst, Awkwardness, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Depression, Dreams, Dreams and Nightmares, Dreams vs. Reality, Dreamsharing, Emotional Manipulation, F/M, False Memories, Implied Sexual Content, Insecurity, Lloyd Garmadon Angst, Lloyd Garmadon Needs Therapy, Lloyd Garmadon Needs a Hug, Manipulation, Manipulative Relationship, Memories, Mental Health Issues, Mild Sexual Content, Oni Lloyd Garmadon, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Psychological Torture, Self-Harm, Sexual Tension, Suicidal Thoughts, Suicide Attempt, Torture
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-24
Updated: 2021-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-16 17:35:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 8
Words: 22,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28960320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LaLloyd271/pseuds/LaLloyd271
Summary: Takes place after Hunted. Lloyd finds himself still needing Harumi long after her death. Despite his best efforts, he just can't make himself hate her. He becomes ashamed of his lingering feelings, distancing himself from everyone else in his life. But when a mysterious stranger claims that they can make his dreams a reality, Lloyd will have to decide what he truly desires most.Llorumi shipping but it's needlessly complicated.Mental illness themes and frequent character deconstruction.
Relationships: Lloyd Garmadon & Nya, Lloyd Garmadon/Harumi, Nya/Jay Walker
Series: (Placeholder Title for Ongoing Llorumi Series) [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2139300
Comments: 2
Kudos: 21





	1. Awakening

**Author's Note:**

> I own nothing and any similarities with any other works are purely coincidental.

_She burst through the door and ran out onto the roof. Off to her left, she saw the Colossus looming in the distance. It was slowly moving towards her, terrorizing the citizens on the ground below as it went by. She frantically looked around; hoping to find a path for escape, but there was nowhere to run. Then it reached her. The stone warrior slammed into the side of the building, sealing her fate as the foundation shook beneath her. She saw another building far in the distance and stared over in shock at the figures perched on its roof._

_He sensed her gaze and slowly turned his head around. He looked over and saw her standing upon the doomed building. Their eyes met; her face a mix of panic and sadness. Her eyes were practically pleading with him, begging him for his forgiveness. His face went pale and he was barely able to hold back the tears welling in his eyes._

_"Rumi…"_

* * *

Lloyd woke with a start, finding himself back at the Monastery of Spinjitzu completely drenched in sweat. It had been 6 months since Harumi's sudden death and he still couldn't get her off his mind. He berated himself for it; he was beyond frustrated with his lingering feelings. Lloyd had every possible reason to despise her; she had resurrected Lord Garmadon, tried to kill his friends, and taken over Ninjago. She had manipulated him; toyed with his emotions, and then shattered his heart. And yet he couldn't make himself hate her. He still loved her, and seemingly no amount of self-deprecation or belittlement would change that.

The nightmares however, were a more recent development. Lloyd had dealt with bad dreams before, but not at this scale, and not since his father was banished to the Cursed Realm. He found himself completely incapable of getting a full night's rest, and it had now been going on for nearly two weeks. He had been waking up from that exact same nightmare, over and over again for the past fortnight. _What does it mean?_ he wondered. _Why do I keep seeing her die again?_

Lloyd groggily got out of bed and went to get dressed for the day. His reflection stared back at him from the mirror on the closet door. Lloyd no longer resembled the happy, boyish teen he had been just a year ago. The bags under his eyes, paler skin, and gaunter body all added to the look of a much more broken man. His relationship with Harumi had seriously scarred and haunted him, and yet he still longed for her. _Why do I care?_ he asked himself. _Why can't I just hate her?_ Lloyd still couldn't make any sense of his confused and muddled emotions, and it was really starting to get to him.

He sighed and looked over at the clock hanging on his wall. The hands on the clock lined up to say that it was 4 in the morning, Lloyd finished changing and then trudged out into the hallway. Rubbing his eyes, he made his way over to the kitchen. To his surprise the lights were already on and he saw Zane starting to prepare breakfast. "Don't tell me today is sunrise exercise." he yawned.

"Your assessment is indeed correct Lloyd. It is Wednesday after all."

Lloyd groaned and walked past Zane to get to the cupboard. Reaching up, he snatched the coffee maker and several espresso shots. He started up the machine and waited for his much-needed caffeine to be ready.

"Lloyd?"

"Yes Zane?"

"I have noticed that several of your regular behavioral patterns have recently been altered. You are tending to wake up earlier than previously normal, and your energy levels have been significantly lower, which indicates that you are probably not receiving as much rest as you need. Your decision to switch out your caffeinated beverage in favor of espresso coffee also supports this hypothesis. At the same time your feelings of aggression and stress have been heightened lately, yet there is not any new danger or threat. I cannot find a suitable explanation for these sudden changes."

"Huh. So someone actually noticed." Lloyd mumbled under his breath.

"I could hear that Lloyd. You may remember that as a Nindroid my hearing is enhanced far beyond normal human capacities."

"Yeah, right. Well, if you must know I have indeed had some trouble sleeping lately." he responded.

"How interesting. There was a 73% chance that issues with sleep were somehow involved, but I could not propose any explanation for why your normal sleeping patterns would be disrupted. There is no logical reason for you to be any more stressed at this time. We are currently at peace, and there has not been a significant threat against our realm for half a year." Zane pondered this briefly before asking "Do you have any theories as to what is causing your heightened stress Lloyd?"

Lloyd froze. He hadn't told anyone about his lingering feelings for Harumi, and he wasn't quite sure how they all would react. He was worried that Kai and Jay would probably make fun of him, and he was concerned that Zane would simply find his feelings to be irrational. However, he thought that Cole or Nya might be a bit more sympathetic and understanding. Regardless, Lloyd didn't feel like chancing it right now. What if they think I admired, or had even turned to, her evil side? Or that I was somehow still being manipulated?

"No." he lied.

Zane was skeptical but didn't press the issue. "Well, if you require any assistance or further advice, I will be more than willing to help you. I believe that statement would apply equally to the rest of the ninja as well."

"Thanks Zane." he said. He stood around and waited until he was able to grab his finished coffee. Sitting down at the nearby table, he started getting his fix. He honestly wasn't sure if he would be able to cope with his nightmares without the help of caffeine.

* * *

The rest of the Ninja all filed in for breakfast about an hour later. Although none of them were fond of the early start, they were very all glad that Zane had cooked. Lloyd got some minor chills just thinking about Cole's meal from the previous day. Zane had prepared everything to be finished when the ninja were supposed to wake up, but Lloyd ended up with his breakfast earlier than normal. Which meant that Lloyd left the table pretty much right after the Ninja arrived and his silence seemed pretty strange to them. While Lloyd was never the most talkative of the group, he was usually at least willing to indulge in their conversations. Not today though.

"Not much talking coming from our royal prince today." Kai remarked. He and Jay had begun jokingly calling Lloyd a prince in regards to his former relationship with the Jade Princess Harumi, and they found it to be funnier after they had separated.

"I have also found Lloyd's reluctance to socialize today quite puzzling." Zane said as he walked over to join the rest of the ninja. "I had previously noted that Lloyd appeared to be sleeping far less than usual, and that his aggression and stress levels were higher than normal. He did confirm that he was having some difficulty with sleep, but he would not answer what it was that was stressing him out more than usual. I do believe that he was hiding something from me due to his increased heart rate and the long time it took him to answer but I have no leads as to what exactly it is he could be hiding."

"Well, I'm sure he'll talk to us about it if he needs to." Nya said. "Lloyd knows that we're here for him, and I'm sure we'll be able to help him with whatever's bothering him if he needs us too."

"It's probably nothing to worry about. Maybe the prince has found himself a new lady friend!" Jay chuckled.

"Guys, you should stop calling him that. Lloyd has said that he doesn't like it, and I'm very sure that he doesn't want to be constantly reminded of Harumi." Cole said.

"That's what makes it so funny!" Kai laughed.

"Well regardless of his reasons, I will be making an effort to pay closer attention to Lloyd." Zane said. "I hope he will be able to explain to us what's concerning him at some point, but if he feels it is his business then I will have to respect his wishes."

"That sounds like a good plan Zane. Now, we don't want to be late for training do we?" Cole asked.

"You don't have to remind me of the last time we made Master Wu wait for us." Jay said with a grimace. "Race you there!"

All of the Ninja immediately ran out towards the training equipment, and in their rush they missed a very important detail. A very distraught and conflicted Lloyd had been sitting right outside of the room, listening to their conversation. He slowly got up and walked after them. _If only they knew…_

* * *

The Ninja ran through the halls of the Monastery towards the training area. At first they all were following the same path but Cole took a detour and cut through a different hallway. Jay looked back and saw, but didn't care since he was still in the lead due to him starting the race. Kai was shoving him, desperately trying to get past him, but Jay kept cutting him off. They soon made it to the exit door and Kai tripped Jay up. "Hey!" Jay yelled as he tumbled and then skidded towards the door. At the same time Cole came running over from the adjacent hallway, and he got his legs swept out by Jay. Kai then hit into Cole, and they both got knocked down. Seeing the blockade, Nya and Zane just kept running down the hallway towards the next door. Lloyd then calmly walked up and tossed Kai at the other wall, as well as kicking Jay completely out of the way.

"Ow! What the hell man!" Kai yelled.

"Yeah, that actually did hurt Lloyd." Jay added.

"You should know not to remind your _Prince_ about Harumi." Lloyd said in a scathing but slightly hurt tone before walking out and claiming his victory in their race.

"I told you so." Cole exclaimed.

"You know, I think I now see what Zane meant when he said Lloyd was acting more aggressive" Kai said sheepishly.

"Yeah, we might not want to make jokes around him anymore or the Prince could get his feelings hurt." Jay said mockingly.

Kai, Jay, and Cole all got themselves up and exited to the training area. Not surprisingly Zane and Nya had beaten them, but they were really only annoyed that Lloyd had somehow swooped in and won a race he hadn't competed in.

"Cole, Kai, and Jay, you are all late. Sunrise Exercise began at 5:00 sharp, and you three arrived here at 5:01." Master Wu said.

"But Master Wu!" Kai whined. "It was Lloyd's fault that we were-"

"I did not ask for excuses for your tardiness. You were late, and that was the only relevant information. You three shall stay behind and mop up the floor once today's lesson is concluded."

Lloyd smirked slightly at the trio, which set off Kai completely. Kai jumped up and lunged at Lloyd, igniting his fist with his elemental fire. "You goddamn son of a bitc-" "Kai!" Nya yelled. "What are you doing?" Lloyd watched Kai's incoming attack with a very bored expression and calmly stepped out of the way of his punch. Kai's punch instead hit the wall of the monastery, and he set the mural ablaze. Nya quickly cooled off the painting, but it unfortunately did not cool off Kai. Kai spun around and began to charge up his fire once again.

"Enough!" Master Wu yelled. "Lloyd is your brother and you will apologize at once."

Kai stood blankly for a moment comprehending his actions and their repercussions before releasing his power. "I-I'm sorry Lloyd. I don't know what came over me."

Lloyd nodded his head. "I forgive you Kai. But if you're going to try and kill me, I would prefer that it be for a better reason than simply having lost a race to get to our daily exercises."

The group erupted with laughter as Kai just looked around sheepishly. "Now that's our Lloyd!" Jay laughed. Lloyd smiled weakly, and then took an overdramatic bow. He still felt quite distracted and stressed, but nothing was better for clearing his head than spending time with his friends.

* * *

Unbeknownst to the ninja, a mysterious stranger was watching their training. The stranger was donned in a green cloak, covering their face and obscuring their identity. They were peering over one of the ledges of the Monastery, mesmerized by the Ninja's complex training regiments. It was ultimately of no consequence to them however. Because despite what Zane may have thought, there was indeed a threat to the realm.

But not a new one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is the first chapter of my overly-complicated Llorumi longfic. I've actually been writing this for about 5 months now but I'm only just starting to crosspost it now. I really should have been doing this already but whatever, it's better to be late than never I guess. As I write these notes there are already another 28 chapters up on fanfiction.net, so anyone out there who actually likes this story can go there to read more. Otherwise I'll probably upload new chapters every week or something, I don't know. I'm far too lazy to completely rewrite any of it but I'll give you all some new end notes, so that's something.


	2. Discovery

The Ninja had just finished up their daily exercises and were back up at the Monastery for dinner. Despite how good training had felt, Lloyd now found himself feeling more and more insecure with his feelings. He glanced around the table. He was on one end, and Master Wu was on the other. On the left side of him sat Jay, Nya, and Kai. To his right, sat Zane and Cole. It deeply saddened him to see the relationship Jay and Nya possessed, and then think about how different it had played out with Harumi. He truly felt alone in the group. Despite the fact that they were all his friends, and he cared for them all deeply, none of them could truly empathize with him. They couldn't understand what it was like to have all this pressure on you and yet never get anything for it. Lloyd was the prophesied Green Ninja, and that meant that time and time again it had been up to him to make the sacrifices and reap none of the rewards. He had lost his childhood, his Golden Power, his father, his own body for several weeks, and now he had lost Harumi. He had his first and only love taken from him; killed by Lord Garmadon's giant stone creation. Oh, how much he wanted to kill the resurrected Garmadon; to make him die slowly and as painfully as possible. He was not Lloyd's father; he was only an imposter, a shadow of his former self. And he had murdered Harumi. Lloyd would make sure his life was a living hell.

"Lloyd?" He looked up to see the other 6 people at the table staring at him. Evidently he had become so engrossed in his thoughts that he hadn't eaten a single bite of food and had been just staring off blankly into the distance.

"Yeah?"

"Oh thank goodness, you're alright!" Nya cried. "We were really worried about you for a while there. It was like you had just frozen and your body looked kind of limp."

"Yeah, I-I guess I just got lost in my thoughts. There's a lot to think about sometimes." he said with a slight grin crossing his face.

The ninja looked at each other with confusion and hesitated before replying.

"Lloyd, are you okay?" Jay asked. "You've been acting really strange for most of the day. Not bad per say, just not like yourself."

Lloyd stared down at the table. They had finally picked up on the agitated mood that his nightmares had been giving him, and he felt less and less sure of what to say or do. They were going to keep asking questions, so was there any real point in lying? No, of course not, they would know, and then they would just get even more worried. He would have to tell the truth. But he didn't need to tell them the whole truth.

Lloyd sighed and looked up at the group. "As I said earlier today to Zane, I have had some trouble sleeping over the past 2 weeks. That alone could be enough to influence or sway me to act or behave differently, but it's not quite so simple. I'm not having difficulty staying asleep or falling asleep. I have been plagued by nightmares over that stretch of time. Or more accurately, one nightmare."

The ninja once again looked at each other and then back at Lloyd with confusion. "What do you mean, one nightmare?" Master Wu asked.

Lloyd took in a deep breath and exhaled before continuing. "I have had the exact same nightmare for the past fourteen days. Each night I've fallen asleep and had the exact same nightmare, and it continues playing out the exact same way. It starts in the exact same spot, always ends at the exact same spot, and I continue waking up at exactly 4 in the morning."

The color had gone from everyone's faces. They all looked worried sick, and extremely concerned for Lloyd's well being. Out of all of them, Master Wu looked the most scared. He certainly didn't want to see his nephew harmed or in pain.

Zane was the first one to speak and his response confirmed that what everyone else was thinking. "People have had nightmares for a fortnight. People have had very similar nightmares for a fortnight. But never in all of the recorded history of Ninjago has anyone discussed experiencing those specific set of circumstances, having occurred without fail for a fortnight."

The group once again fell silent with their fear and concern. That was extremely worrying news, and no one knew quite what to make of it. Lloyd had basically ignored and dismissed his nightmares, but even he had to admit how concerning they were.

"So, if no one has ever experienced this before, how could this be happening to Lloyd?" Kai asked.

"There is only one possible explanation I can think of for such a specific and profound experience in regards to dreams." Master Wu said. He looked solemn and crestfallen, as if he had in some way let down the Ninja. He paused, and took a sip of his tea before continuing.

"Lloyd, The only way that your dreams could have been so intricately arranged is that someone has been manipulating your dreams. Someone has been deliberately showing you that same nightmare for the past fortnight."

"Lloyd, why do you keep doing this?!" Nya yelled.

Taken aback by both her harsh tone and question, Lloyd didn't know what to say. "What? I, uh, well-"

"You act like you're alone in every fight, that you have to solve every problem by yourself. If you were having nightmares, particularly seriously repetitive and concerning ones, why didn't you tell us?"

_Because I can't let you know I still love Harumi, that's why._

Lloyd stared at her blankly for a few seconds before saying, "Well, I didn't really think it was that big of a deal, and besides, Jay and Kai would have both made fun of me for having nightmares."

Kai was taken aback by the accusation, which stopped him from the making the joke that he was about to say. "Hey! I would not have done that!" he yelled.

"Yes, yes ,you would have, and I probably would have as well." Jay said.

Nya glared at the both of them and was livid. "You two dumbasses have really screwed up if Lloyd won't talk to us because he's worried of getting made fun of! You've actually managed to make him even more shy and insecure than he already was, and what was the point of it all? What good does making fun of someone or something ever actually do?!"

"Nya, you think I'm shy and insecure?" Lloyd asked. I mean, he did acknowledge that he had own insecurities well enough, but no one had ever said that about or to him before. He was genuinely hurt and pretty surprised that she would say that about him. Lloyd had always seen Nya as his closest friend and only person he could really confide in, as she had always treated him with respect and kindness. When he first joined the Ninja she was the only person who stood up for him. The other four didn't like him much at all, at least until he became the Green Ninja. Then they all loved him and everything was fine. Except Nya was still the only one who ever was nice to him until he got aged up with the rest of them. Lloyd never got to do anything to help the team until he gave up his entire childhood for them. Of course by now he had grown close enough with each of the ninja, but he still saw Nya as his closest friend in the entire world.

Nya looked immediately ashamed of herself and her face fell flat. "Oh, Lloyd. I didn't mean it like that." she said, her voice quivering.

"No it's fine. I understand." Lloyd muttered in a flat and dull tone. He got up from the table and slunk off down the hall, his head drooping low over his chest as he went.

Kai looked up with a dreary expression at his retreating figure before remarking, "So what was that about us hurting Lloyd? It seems you did a pretty nice job too Nya!"

She didn't respond. She was still looking down at the table and she was on the verge of tears.

Master Wu scolded Kai before looking over at Nya with sadness in his face. "As I was saying, someone must be manipulating Lloyd's dreams. And there is only one person I know capable of doing such a thing. I had hoped they were gone and would never be seen again, but now it seems I may have been mistaken."

"Who is it Master?" Cole asked.

Wu sighed and looked very distraught. "Through your travels you have seen many elemental powers in use. You 5 possess the elements of Fire, Ice, Earth, Lightning, and Water respectively. Lloyd embodies the Essence of Energy and he previously had control over the fabled Golden Power. I have control over Creation, whereas my resurrected brother can only harness Destruction. You met the elemental masters of Metal, Mind, Nature, Amber, Form, Speed, Light, Shadow, Smoke, Poison, Gravity, and Sound during your stay on Chen's Island, and then more recently you encountered the elements of Wind and Time. However, there exists yet another elemental power, one that I had believed to be lost forever. The Elemental Power of Dreams."

The Ninja looked quite surprised by the news, and Nya had finally looked up from the table. They all looked significantly paler than before, and Nya's sadness had once again turned to anger. "What do they want with Lloyd?" she asked between gritted teeth. Her eyes narrowed and she appeared to be glaring at Master Wu for once again hiding more information from them.

He looked back at her, his face a mix of sadness and disappointment. "I do not know, but I believe that the Master of Dreams would not have very honorable intentions. Many people over the years have attempted to use or harm Lloyd for his power, and I fear that this may not be much different."

Nya's expression shot up with worry. "We should never have let him go off alone." she said before running down the hallway.

* * *

Lloyd walked down the hall and back up to his room. He opened the door before shutting and locking it. He collapsed in a heap, landing right on the edge of his bed. The caffeine had begun to wear off and Lloyd suddenly felt far more tired.

There was a knock on the door. Lloyd groaned before firing a shot of energy at his door lock. The latch for the door got hit and fell to the ground. "It's open." he grumbled. Twisted back towards the bed, he turned away from the door. He heard the door open and someone walk in, but they weren't saying anything. The person walked over and stood right in front of him, patiently waiting for his attention. Lloyd looking down saw that the person was wearing a green cloak, which was an immediate red flag. _No one else wears green here._ His eyes shot up and he saw the figure in their entirety.

The green coloring was impossible to exactly pin down for Lloyd at the moment, but off of a glance it looked like a forest green or possibly an artichoke coloring. He could see what looked like a light blue and black shirt peeking out from under the cloak, and both articles of clothing appeared to be made out of cotton or some other cheap fabric; nothing super expensive looking. His eyes slowly turned to the person's face, and all he could see was some sort of black covering obscuring their face, as well as the cloak reaching up as a hood to also cover their head. They didn't seem to be very tall; in fact they may have been shorter than Lloyd, but in his current state they towered over him.

"Who are you?" he asked groggily. They once again said nothing and Lloyd saw a cyan flash before everything went dark.

* * *

[NAME REDACTED]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So it may not have been completely clear from the first chapter but in this fanfic I really expanded on Lloyd and Nya's relationship; sometimes at a determent to both Kai and Jay. I don't ship Lloyd and Nya romantically but it is a pairing that I understand very well and I've found that further cementing their friendship after Hunted is a really good way to enhance the relationship drama. Also yeah, I did invent a new element for this story.
> 
> On an unrelated note, one of the things that interested me the most about this platform when compared to ffn was the ability to embed images, and I do plan to take full advantage of that feature going forward. Most of my illustrations are drawn as minifigures but some of the later ones may be drawn as regular people, albeit in a very cartoonish style. Either way I'm really not that good at art and I usually don't care enough to actually fix any of the errors in my drawings, so don't expect all that much.


	3. Almost

_He was standing upon a solid stone-looking ground. The floor had been cut and shaped long ago, leaving a just circle in the middle where the mask had been. One small misstep would lead to a very long fall, and he had no intention of dying. He looked over and saw the purple mask leaning towards the edge of the cliff. It was truly a sight to behold; the impeccable Oni craftsmanship had made the mask feel light and weightless, and yet it was extremely durable and strong. The design of the mask was pretty hideous looking to him, but it somehow felt beautiful at the same time. The art was mesmerizing, and it was a shame that he wouldn't get to keep it._

_Lloyd charged up his energy. "Give me one reason not to say goodbye to it right now."_

_Harumi turned to look at him. Her face was expressing feelings of frustration and impatience, but she did not let the feelings overpower her. She still had a chance of salvaging her relationship with Lloyd. He might even be persuaded to join her. She just had to wait a bit longer, and choose the opportune moment to strike._

" _I'll give you two. You want to see your father again, and you love me."_

_Lloyd froze. She was right of course, he was in love with her. He couldn't deny his feelings, but he couldn't afford to show them either. Not when she would seek to exploit his emotions for her own gain. He tried to turn away and ignore her but he couldn't. She saw his face soften and knew she had gotten through._

" _Ah, your emotions. You can't get rid of them. It's hard to think, isn't it?" Harumi was spot on with each statement. As much as Lloyd wanted to push her away, he just couldn't. "I felt those feelings too." said Harumi, smiling kindly at him. He couldn't believe her; no, he told himself that she had to be lying. But what if she was telling the truth? He needed her more than anything else in the world. Lloyd felt his defense fade away and he smiled back at her. He let go of his worries and just moved up against her. "We truly are kindred spirits." she said. Just being close to her; having her near, it comforted him. He could just be himself around her, and it always felt magical. His anger had dissipated and he had begun to calm himself once more. Harumi slowly pulled out a knife and pounced._

* * *

Lloyd woke with a start, shaking himself out of another nightmare. He was surprised at the nightmare however, as it was not Harumi's death. He had finally had a different dream than before, which reassured him a bit. Looking around he saw that he was no longer in the Monastery. He was surrounded entirely by sky and sea, which was quite a shock. The fact that he was not drowning was quite a relief to him, but that feeling was overshadowed when saw how he was flying.

Lloyd was riding upon an Elemental Power dragon. The dragon was that same shade of cyan he saw before, except for its white mane. Interestingly, the dragon had a sort of bubbly looking mane; almost like it was made up of a bunch of clouds clumped together. Lloyd leaned over to try and pet the dragon, but he found himself unable to fully move his arms. Looking down Lloyd saw that his wrists were bound by handcuffs. "Goddamn vengestone." he muttered under his breath. The dragon's other rider stirred at this and turned towards him. It was the same person that had been in his room, and Lloyd immediately felt a chill run down his spine. The person stared at him for several seconds before turning their attention back to flying the dragon. Lloyd looked down at the water below him, and he seriously contemplated jumping. They weren't flying all too high right now, and he was pretty sure he could at least tread water with the handcuffs on. He might not be able to swim very far, but it seemed to be his only path of escape.

Lloyd decided to try for a subtler, but far more complicated escape. He would try to climb down to the underside of the dragon and wait. After making sure that his disappearance went unnoticed, Lloyd would scurry over to the dragon's mouth and try to break the handcuffs off with its sharp teeth. It was incredibly risky, and there were countless ways it could go very horribly wrong. But he went for it anyway.

Lloyd started shifting himself to the right of the dragon. He took his time, making sure he wasn't being obvious about it. After several minutes of shuffling and scooting himself over, he stood up and quietly jumped off the side of the dragon. He was able to reach back and grab hold to the dragon, and then he waited. So far, his plan was working. He had managed to slide down the dragon without drawing the gaze of the mysterious figure. He then started maneuvering his way towards the mouth of the dragon. It was very grueling work due to how much the handcuffs limited his movement, but after a few minutes he managed to make it up towards the front of the dragon. He was nearly out of breath, but he managed to loop the handcuffs up and around one of the dragon's teeth.

The dragon recoiled, suddenly noticing the stranger holding on to its mouth. The dragon shook and whipped its head around, desperately trying to free itself from Lloyd's grasp, and the person flying the dragon got one the reins ripped straight out of their grasp. They looked around in shock to see that Lloyd had somehow vanished. Looking down, they saw no obvious sign of him in the water but motioned the dragon towards the ocean anyway. The dragon obliged, although it was still wrestling with Lloyd. The dragon gave up squirming and chomped downwards, trying to crush the foreign attacker, but it only succeeded in breaking the handcuffs off cleanly in half. The dragon roared in pain, and he flipped up to land atop its head.

The rider jumped up in surprise, and Lloyd started charging up his energy. The rider was quicker on the draw however, and shot yet another cyan beam at him. Lloyd was able to use his energy to shield himself from the beam, but they had succeeding in delaying his attack. The rider shot once more, and Lloyd was forced to leap out of the way. Unfortunately he hadn't noticed which way he was jumping, and he fell off the side of the dragon. Lloyd was free falling towards the water but he was able to use his energy to propel himself up to the dragon's back. He landed behind the rider and he was able to back them up against the dragon's head. He had the chance to escape, but Lloyd wanted revenge. It felt very wrong to him but he started to charge up his energy.

"Lloyd?" said a voice from behind him.

 _No. It's not possible, she can't be here._ "Lloyd?" His energy dissipated and he slowly turned around to see Harumi standing behind him. "Rumi?" he gasped. She smiled back at him and he started walking towards her. And that's when he got hit by a cyan beam and collapsed on the dragon's back. The rider waved off the apparition and it vanished into thin air. "How pathetic." they remarked, disgusted at the sight of Lloyd's crumpled body. And then they turned their attention back to flying.

* * *

The Ninja had gathered on the rebuilt Destiny's Bounty to try and locate Lloyd. They were in the Control Room discussing possible outcomes and checking the map laid out before them. Nya was pacing across the room and loudly venting to everyone. It was obvious she was very worried about him, and she was by far the closest to Lloyd out of all them. But her near fanatical rage was scaring Jay, and it almost made him question whether Nya was really in love with Lloyd. He dismissed his worries, as the important thing was finding him.

"But what would this Elemental Master want with Lloyd?" Kai questioned. "What use would he be to them, and why not take any of us?"

"Clearly because you're just not valuable enough." Jay mused.

"Shut it motormouth." Kai said quietly. To the whole group he joked, "Clearly our prince is just reuniting with his fellow royalty."

"Stop calling him that guys." Cole said, his patience wearing thin with their antics.

"Why? He's not here to be offended anymore." Kai quipped.

"Enough of this!" Master Wu snapped. "We must find Lloyd and bring him back. I do not know why he has been taken from us, but we must concentrate all of our efforts on finding him."

"Yes Master Wu." Kai muttered sheepishly.

"What I can try to explain however, is what powers we may face in the near future. The Master of Dreams can manipulate anyone's pre-existing dreams and change any detail they wish. They can also conjure an entirely artificial dream state, where they have more complete control over who or what appears."

"Which one of those do you think was affecting Lloyd?" Jay asked.

"It was almost certainly the artificial dream state. Lloyd would have needed to have been dreaming of the exact same location and people every night for it to have been simple dream manipulation. Without that a Master of Dreams could not recreate the same nightmare for so long." Master Wu responded. "This means that unfortunately my nephew never actually slept over that entire two week period."

"No wonder he was acting so strangely." Kai mused.

"As I was saying, the Master of Dreams also possesses the power to erase memories. The power can only erase events that have transpired after the subject has been asleep. And fortunately for my nephew, the artificial dream allows the brain to properly form lasting memories. They can also create temporary apparitions, although it is only possible for them to project an image of someone or something of great importance to the target. The final power the Master of Dreams cam use is the ability to immediately put others to sleep. The master must hit the target with a beam of energy, but the power is very dangerous."

"So what; they can mess up dreams, delete a few memories, cause hallucinations, and put people to sleep? Doesn't really sound _that_ bad to me." Jay said.

"It may not at first, but all of the powers can be extremely dangerous." The ninja turned to the see the source of the voice, and they saw that Misako had arrived. She had been off doing some historical research, but had rushed back when she heard about Lloyd's abduction. "Each power is relatively safe when used in moderation, but they can all be used to devastating effect. That's why the power of memory disruption and apparition are so limited in their use. The First Spinjitzu Master knew how they could be used if the powers were passed down to the wrong person, and so he restricted how they could be used. And that is a trait entirely unique to this element. It offers little help in combat, with the only tactic besides being able to put enemies to sleep. The powers are far more situational than most, but they can be used to a far greater effect."

"What is of far more concern however is that the artificial dream state created by the Elemental Master has the potential to permanently alter and change the subject. It is said to be immeasurably difficult to accomplish, but it is theoretically possible for one of the artificial dream states to have lasting effects in the real world. The target not only remembers those dreams, but they become more ingrained in the mind than regular memories. If Lloyd was telling you all the truth, then my son may already have been groomed for a permanent mental alteration."

"Lloyd was telling us the truth." Everyone glanced at Zane, a bit surprised with how immediate his response was. "I took note of both his heart rate, and the length it took him to respond to us, and the data indicates that he was telling us the truth." They all relaxed a bit after hearing the news. Although Lloyd's current predicament was very bad, they were at least glad that he had told them about it. If he hadn't mentioned anything, then they would be completely lost.

"That is not the end of my findings." They all turned back to Zane; the worry creeping back onto every face. "Lloyd took approximately 43 seconds to respond after Jay asked him about his well-being, and in that time, his heart rate was not so steady. His heart rate started off at normal levels, but within 10 seconds it had increased. It increased for the following 20 seconds, before it tapered off. Based on that data, I would hypothesize that he may not have told us the entire truth. There was in fact one very vital detail that he never explained to us."

"What?" they yelled simultaneously.

"Lloyd never mentioned what was in his nightmare. He only discussed the repeated circumstances of the nightmare."

A look of dread and horror crossed every face in the room. "How could we have missed that?!" Nya yelled. She went back to her venting beration, while Cole responded a bit more critically. "So Lloyd has been abducted and we don't know anything about what he's going through. If we had thought to ask him that, we might have been able to guess at what this Elemental Master has planned for him. But we didn't, and now Lloyd will have to suffer for it."

"I noticed at the time that he was hiding that information." Zane's response once again drew in the attention of everyone in the room, but this time it was out of anger and frustration.

"If you noticed he hadn't said anything about it, then WHY DIDN'T YOU ASK HIM?!" Jay screamed, his voice shrill and high-pitched.

"Lloyd had lied to me directly when I had previously asked him what may have been causing his trouble sleeping, and I thought it that may have come off as rude for me to pry for information that he was unwilling to reveal. Had I known that he would be kidnapped so soon afterwards, I would have certainly asked him more about his nightmare. But at the time I wished to respect his privacy, and I was planning to inquire more by myself at a later time."

The ninja accepted his reasoning, although it didn't make it sting any less for them.

"It is also important to note that Lloyd was never told about the Elemental Power of Dreams, and so he would not have known the true cause of his recurring nightmare. Without that knowledge he may have felt more personally responsible for his troubled sleep, and that may have made him unsure of himself. If it was an issue that he was previously concerned about, prior to the start of the nightmares, then that could have further compounded the shame and apprehension he felt about his dream."

"However I personally find the precise timing of his abduction to be the more interesting detail. Lloyd told us that he was having this nightmare, and walked away from the table after Nya hurt his feelings." She winced a bit at the blunt observation. "By the time we concluded the conversation, Lloyd had vanished. The only logical explanation I can surmise for the timing is that the person had been spying on us, most likely for a long period of time, and decided that Lloyd needed to be taken before he said anything else. They may have timed their attack purposefully, so as to prevent Lloyd from revealing the contents of his dream."

The ninja stood dumbfounded for nearly a minute before Master Wu responded. "Zane, you have given us all much to think about. I believe that we should all try to get some rest. As much as we all want to get Lloyd back now, we cannot find ourselves losing too much sleep."

"Yeah, we certainly don't want to be any more aggressive, shy, or insecure." Kai chuckled. Nya glared at him for the obvious insult, but she didn't let herself get drawn into a fight. No, she wanted to save her energy for whoever had Lloyd. And she had no intention of letting them live to see another day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So since the last update I decided to largely overhaul the story tags, and that was partially because I'm now choosing to split this fic into multiple parts. When I was originally writing this for ffn I did plan to cut it off after the 16th chapter, but eventually I just added on to the same story instead of writing a dedicated sequel. But seeing that this platform has a streamlined series system, I've decided to follow my original vision and do things a little differently over here.
> 
> Anyway, I don't really have much to say about this chapter specifically, I mean it's just a bunch of expository world building. Granted my original concept for the Elemental Power of Dreams is the focal point for a lot of the story here, so you should probably just get used to these rather lengthy conversations I guess.


	4. Proposition

_He was trekking through a dense and thick jungle. The foliage was covering and obscuring the trees, casting a long shadow across the damp ground. He was getting slightly bored with their exploration, and he despised the fact that his injured arm was preventing him from truly helping. He sighed and trudged forward, only to find himself caught in the clutches of strangle weed. He tried to get a word out to Harumi, but he was dragged away from her in an instant._

" _Lloyd!"_

_She was running extremely well, and was somehow avoiding all of the imposing plants threatening to interrupt her path. Despite her best efforts, she wasn't quite fast enough. Lloyd was about to be dragged into the tree and she wouldn't get there in time. With no option left she grabbed her dagger and flung it at the parasitical vines. The dagger hit its mark and sliced them apart. However, the remaining strangle weed wasn't letting go of Lloyd. They were still holding him just as tightly and he could do nothing to break their grasp._

_Harumi watched with mild amusement as he struggled and squirmed against his captor. Lloyd violently twisted and shook himself, but nothing he was doing was working. Sighing to himself, he stopped moving and looked up pleadingly at her._

" _Would you mind freeing me from the strangle weed please?" Lloyd asked, his voice as polite as he could manage._

_Seeing him like this had done something to her. She felt a massive rush of excitement, and it was a sensation unlike anything she had ever experienced before. It was difficult for her to fully comprehend, but seeing Lloyd tied up and helpless had aroused her, in ways she'd never felt before. A mischievous smile crept up her face, and she began moving her hand slowly down her leg._

" _Uh, Harumi? Are you going to help me?"_

" _You know, I don't think I will. I like seeing you tied up Lloyd."_

_Lloyd looked confused for a moment before his face went completely pale. She giggled at his awkward reaction and started walking over to him. He had been taken aback by her suggestive statement, and he began to struggle once more against the vines, although to no avail. Harumi watched him strain and convulse against his bondage for a bit longer before running her hands gently over his twitching body. He immediately fell still, and all of his problems just washed away. He looked up at her, equally shocked and enchanted by her intimacy._

" _Oh, Rumi…"_

* * *

Lloyd woke with a start, panting for breath and finding his heart racing. He couldn't believe what he had just seen; it was so vivid and real. What he had just experienced was very, very different from his past nightmares. Not only had this been the first dream to sharply depart from his memories, but it had done so in such a profound manner. His body still felt tingly and aroused, as if she had actually been there with him. Then reality hit him and his eyes began to well with tears.

Lloyd had never been that physically intimate with anyone, and he now wondered if he ever could be again. Would he ever be able to see anyone else in the same way? _No._ he silently answered. _No, I love Harumi with all of my heart, even if she may be gone forever_. With that thought the tears came crashing down. All the pain and emotion he had been suppressing for the past year could no longer be contained. He hadn't allowed himself to cry, or show any of his true vulnerabilities for the longest time, but he just couldn't hide them anymore. Lloyd was no longer capable of lying to himself.

After several minutes, he was able to stabilize and steady his heart rate and breathing, but he found that he couldn't move his arms up to wipe away any of his tears. Looking down he saw his wrists were once more bound in vengestone. With a large groan, he pushed himself up and looked up at his surroundings. He had been lying on the peak of a tall mountain. He could see a whole line of smaller peaks and cliff faces lining a beach, and further out he saw a raging ocean. "Okay, so I'm on the coast." he mused. "That's helpful, but which coast am I on?"

"I'm surprised you don't recognize it."

Lloyd froze at the sound of the voice. He was not in fact alone as he had thought, and as such he had unknowingly shown someone else his true feelings. His blood began to boil at the thought, and he vowed to himself that he would never break down like that ever again. Lloyd would not allow anyone else the chance to possibly manipulate and exploit his emotions again. He just couldn't deal with any more pain or heartbreak.

But there was something off about their voice. Lloyd had heard it before, somewhere. It sounded so familiar, but he couldn't quite place it. He guessed that the voice was being slightly deepened through some sort of technical filter, or at the very least through conditioned acting, but either way there was just something about it that rubbed him the wrong way. Lloyd didn't know who was speaking to him, but he was certainly going to be very wary of whoever it was.

Lloyd slowly turned around, surmising that he was probably going to find the same cloaked figure as before. His eyes went wide with shock. It was far worse than he could have ever imagined. He nearly collapsed at the sight, but he managed to stay up and alert. It was indeed the same cloaked person from before, and they were leaning up against a very rusted but unmistakable work of craftsmanship. They were standing next to the Celestial Clock.

Lloyd had been brought back to the Dark Island.

* * *

"Yes Lloyd, welcome back to the Dark Island. It's one of my favorite destinations; it's just so serene and peaceful." the strange person remarked blandly.

"Who are you?"

"Oh, you're so right Lloyd! I haven't introduced myself, have I? I am the last Elemental Master of Dreams." They gave an over-dramatically regal bow, and proceeded to shoot another cyan beam from their outstretched hand. It was far from hitting Lloyd, but he was still a bit shaken up by the gesture.

"I've never heard of anyone having power over dreams before."

"Well of course your beloved Wu wouldn't tell you. After all, he was the one who killed the rest of my family." they said solemnly. "I alone survived."

Lloyd's face drained of its color. He stared at the person, unsure of quite how to respond. _Was he being baited?_ They had made the statement with such a genuine and sincere tone, but he just couldn't believe what he had been told. _No, there was no way that my uncle could have done such a thing._

"You're lying." he stated flatly.

They tilted and leaned their head off to their shoulder in a mocking sense of concern. "Oh no! Am I? Well then, why don't you go and ask him about it yourself?" they said with a wave of their hand.

Lloyd spun around and saw his uncle standing near the edge of the cliff face. He looked over at the aloof stranger and then back at Wu. _How the hell had they been able to transport him across half the realm with a single hand gesture? This just doesn't seem connected to dreams at all, and it's starting to freak me out._ he thought.

"How did you do that?" he asked, with an odd mix of fear, confusion, and awe of their power.

"Do what, I didn't do anything. Don't tell me you're seeing things now Lloyd."

Lloyd narrowed his eyes. He had just about had enough of their flippant remarks. He turned back to Master Wu. "Is it true? Did you try to kill off their element?"

Wu looked down at his feet, crestfallen and ashamed. He slowly nodded, and kept his gaze fixed to the ground. Lloyd stared back at him, surprised and worried by what he had been told. _Why would Wu have done such a thing? He certainly would not have done it lightly._ he told himself. _No, there has to be something truly evil and dangerous about the Element for him to have attempted such a drastic measure._

"Yeah, well, I'm really sorry to break up the family reunion, but it's my turn to talk." With another short wave the apparition of Wu vanished into thin air.

Lloyd stood transfixed for the moment. Lloyd shook his head, still refusing to believe what he had learned. He turned his attention back to the mysterious stranger.

"What exactly is it that you want from me?"

"Oh, bravo Lloyd! I'm very glad that you asked. As you may have seen before, one of my many wondrous talents is the ability to temporarily conjure an apparition. That was indeed Wu you just saw, but in reality you were only speaking with his soul, which I briefly detached from his normal body. Your brain just made you think that you were actually seeing your genocidal uncle. Make sense so far?"

Lloyd glared with malice at his eccentric captor. He didn't trust them in the slightest, but there wasn't much of a point to push the issue. Starting a fight when he still couldn't access to his powers would not be a very good idea. "I don't see what this has to do with me." he replied.

"Well no, of course you wouldn't because I'm not finished yet! The point is that my power of apparition is limited by what others wish to see. I can only make something appear when another person truly wants it to. Like watch this, I can summon your bitchy lover girl again." With another short wave, Lloyd once again found himself standing next to an illusion of Harumi.

Lloyd ignored her completely and continued to glare at the Master of Dreams. "Don't _ever_ call her that again. This is your one and only warning."

"Have it your way Lloyd." she said grumpily. Harumi threw her knife at him, causing Lloyd to recoil with fear, but the blade vanished before hitting him, along with the apparition.

"Yeah see, I don't buy that bullshit Lloyd. I don't think you would ever truly have the guts to kill me or anyone else. I mean, what would the public think of their beloved prince in green? Their one true hero and savior couldn't possibly be a murderer, now could he?"

Lloyd continued to stare down the indifferent trickster, completely unfazed by their taunts. "A year ago I would have wholeheartedly agreed with you. But now, I'm not so sure. Sometimes I find myself looking for a fight, and I can be pretty violent. I know I shouldn't, but fighting is just the only reliable way I can deal with my emotions. So no, I wouldn't suggest taunting me any further, especially if you want me to work with you willingly."

"Okay, well, regardless, my point is that nothing I conjure will stick around for very long, and that is where you come in. My powers to temporarily fulfill desires of another can become permanent if my powers are used in conjunction with the Element of Creation."

Lloyd cut them off, responding immediately with a surprising combination of anger and condescension."Yeah, sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but my Golden Power has been completely spent. I can't create jack shit anymore, all I can do is use my native Energy powers."

"What an astute observation Lloyd! You're so very right, just like always." they said with even more sarcasm. "Fortunately for you however, the Golden Power still exists within the Golden Armor. Should you be able to reclaim the armor, I would be able to help resurrect your beloved Princess. She could be here with you again; giving you a fresh start and another chance to mend your broken heart. All that you desire is easily within your grasp."

This was a lot for Lloyd to take in. He would give anything to have her back again. Even if she returned as the same evil and conniving woman, he would prefer it immeasurably over his current purgatory-like state. And it all seemed so simple. Lloyd knew exactly where the armor was, so all he had to do was get past Borg's stupid nindroids, which just about anyone with enough determination could easily manage. And the Golden Power was rightfully his, so would it even count as stealing? _No, I would only be reclaiming what was once stolen from me._ he answered.

"Alright, you've piqued my interest. But let me ask you once again. What exactly is it that you want from me? I find it impossible to believe you would do this without asking for some sort of reward or compensation. I would give practically anything to have her back, but what is is that you desire?" Lloyd asked.

The Master of Dreams looked down and sighed. "Yes, as you can no doubt guess, there is indeed something I wish in return for giving you back your romantic partner. I just want peace. I don't want to be hunted or chastised any more for my powers; I just want to be left alone. And I know what you're going to say, that oh, I was minding my own business and doing just fine until I abducted you. But I want to be able to walk through Ninjago freely again. I don't want to have to hide and obscure my identity to avoid persecution anymore."

Lloyd stood still, contemplating the sincerity of their words. _Was that all they really wanted?_ Lloyd found himself very confused by the person standing before him, but he could not pass up this chance. He wanted desperately, more than anything in this world, to have his Harumi back. And he would have her. By any means necessary.

"Consider it done." he replied. "I'll make sure that you can have your freedom, even if it means I have to confront or fight my uncle."

"How excellent! I will await your return with great hope Lloyd." They sauntered over and undid his handcuffs. Lloyd immediately felt his energy and power return, and it was such a relief. He had felt severely limited and restricted without it, as if someone had removed one of his most important senses. "I'll be back!" he yelled before jumping off the mountain and summoning his own dragon.

Lloyd stared down at the water beneath him. He had never attempted such a long journey before, and he was not entirely sure if he would be able to sustain his Elemental Dragon for the flight back to Ninjago. Then he remembered his failed escape attempt from earlier, and was relieved to know that it was at least possible. The Master of Dreams had managed to fly across the entire sea, and Lloyd would do it too. Because when it came to Harumi, nothing would ever get in his way again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was really the first chapter where I started to mix in some implied sexual situations, so I guess that should be exciting to some of you, maybe, I don't know. In a more general sense this is also where I think the narrative starts to pick up a bit and fortunately enough the next chapter isn't actually riddled with needless exposition. 
> 
> On an unrelated note I hope you all liked meeting the Master of Dreams and I will say their dialogue was always an absolute thrill to write. I acknowledge that their presence in the story may scare off some readers just based on principal alone, but hopefully it doesn't because I think they're probably the funniest character I've written in any story to date.


	5. Betrayal

Zane sat in the Control Room of the Bounty. It was very early in the morning, and the other ninja had gone to sleep several hours ago. As a Nindroid Zane did not require sleep, but he normally powered down his main systems at night. He had refused to do that today however, instead volunteering his time to continue searching for Lloyd. He had been pouring over all the facts and data they had, and he had not been able to find a conclusive explanation behind Lloyd's disappearance. The group technically had no confirmation as to if Lloyd had even been abducted in the first place, as none of them had seen the Master of Dreams. For all they knew Lloyd could have just left the Monastery under his own volition. This frustrated Zane considerably, as he struggled with making decisions and research off of pure speculation, but he had been trying his hardest.

And while Zane had come to a conclusion on the most likely scenario during his previous discussion with the team, he still could not figure out why Lloyd had been taken. Whatever this Elemental Master had planned for Lloyd was a mystery to Zane. If only he had been able to decipher what Lloyd had been dreaming about. But his efforts had not been fruitful. Zane had spent the past few hours sifting through all of his data collecting from the past two weeks, but nothing he had been monitoring gave much of an indication as to what had been troubling Lloyd.

He had stumbled upon one very interesting detail however. Lloyd had been listening to their conversation from the previous day, and Zane had missed it. His scanners had noticed him, and they had been able to immediately pick up on the fact that Lloyd had been sitting outside of the room. Looking back through his data he saw that they had all ran right past where Lloyd was sitting, and Zane scolded himself for missing such a thing. He had been distracted by their conversation and their subsequent race so much that he had overlooked his most valuable piece of data. Zane loaded up their conversation from the previous morning, and focused the scanners on Lloyd.

" _Not much talking coming from our royal prince today." Kai remarked._

At this moment Zane's scanners picked up a slight increase in Lloyd's heart rate, but it very quickly plateaued. This was not particularly surprising as Lloyd did not take kindly to their nickname for him.

" _I have also found Lloyd's reluctance to socialize today quite puzzling." Zane said as he walked over to join the rest of the ninja. "I had previously noted that Lloyd appeared to be sleeping far less than usual, and that his aggression and stress levels were higher than normal. He did confirm that he was having some difficulty with sleep, but he would not answer what it was that was stressing him out more than usual. I do believe that he was hiding something from me due to his increased heart rate and the long time it took him to answer but I have no leads as to what exactly it is he could be hiding."_

Zane saw that Lloyd's heart rate spiked significantly after he had mentioned that he thought Lloyd was hiding something. This was also not particularly surprising. Zane found it regrettable that he had no visual record of Lloyd in these instances, as heart rate and other data could only help him so much. They could tell him what things Lloyd had reacted more sharply to, but it offered no help in explaining said reactions.

" _Well, I'm sure he'll talk to us about it if he needs to." Nya said. "Lloyd knows that we're here for him, and I'm sure we'll be able to help him with whatever's bothering him if he needs us to."_

This statement appeared to have put Lloyd at ease more, as his rate began to fall to a more normal level.

" _It's probably nothing to worry about. Maybe the prince has found himself a new lady friend!" Jay chuckled._

At this moment Lloyd's heart rate jumped to the highest levels out of all of the scans, and Zane noted that Lloyd's aggression levels also shot up. Zane found it rather odd that a passing remark towards Lloyd's lack of romantic interaction had angered and worried him more than anything else in their conversation.

" _Guys, you should stop calling him that. Lloyd has said that he doesn't like it, and I'm sure he doesn't want to be constantly reminded of Harumi." Cole said._

This was the moment, the one single time Lloyd responded to their conversation. Zane's scanners picked up the absolute faintest of a whisper, but the fallout from his one slip in judgement screamed louder than Lloyd could ever have imagined.

" _You have no idea." Lloyd softly remarked._

Zane paused the playback. Had Lloyd unknowingly shown his hand with this very simple reply? Zane pondered those four words for what seemed like hours. Lloyd had responded to Cole's statement, and no others. He had spoken up specifically following the line mentioning Harumi, not their discussion regarding the nickname he disliked. _What did it mean? Was Lloyd agreeing with Cole, in that he didn't want to hear anymore about Harumi, or was he saying the opposite? Was he rather discrediting Cole's assessment, hinting that Lloyd was still harboring feelings for her? And was this indeed the subject of his nightmares?_ he asked himself.

Zane froze. Of course he was having nightmares regarding Harumi. It all fit perfectly, as Lloyd would probably still be harboring feelings of guilt or resentment towards her even this long after her untimely death. If Lloyd was already troubled by his experiences with her, then the nightmares would only have compounded it further, and it was clearly a very sensitive topic for him. It made perfect sense, but Zane was still unsure what it meant. What could the supposed Master of Dreams possibly seek to gain from doing this?

Zane continued watching the footage, wondering if he could glean anything else from it. The rest of their conversation garnered no change or response from Lloyd, but when the five ninja ran out of the room, Zane slowed down the video and zoomed in on Lloyd. He had been sitting up against the wall to the left of them, his knees tucked up under his head. His face was fraught with worry and distress, and his eyes were welling with tears. Zane looked down at his feet, ashamed that he had missed all of this. He had ignored Lloyd when he had most needed help, and if Zane had noticed any of this at the time, Lloyd might still be with them. This was now the second chance to prevent Lloyd's abduction that Zane had overlooked, and the guilt began to overwhelm him.

After a few minutes he sighed, choosing to move on as he could not change the past. He would try to learn all he could from it however, and he continued the playback. _He and the others had been running for about 10 seconds before Zane's scanners picked up footsteps in the distance. Lloyd had begun to follow them, another key detail he had missed. 30 seconds later he saw the collision between Jay, Kai, and Cole and continued running._ Zane ignored the further visual footage, isolating Lloyd's audio among the ruckus. _10 seconds after the collision the footsteps stopped and he heard two bodies hit the walls._

" _Ow! What the hell man!" Kai yelled._

" _Yeah, that actually did hurt Lloyd." Jay added._

" _You should know not to remind your Prince about Harumi." Lloyd said in a scathing but slightly hurt tone before walking out and claiming his victory in their race._

Zane stopped the video. That was the nail in the coffin, the smoking gun for this case. Lloyd had almost certainly been having nightmares about Harumi, and it brought back some painful memories that Lloyd was unwilling to talk about. This essentially proved to Zane that the Master of Dreams had been purposefully exploiting Lloyd's emotions, and that immediately made them a far more worrying threat. Lloyd was extremely insecure with his emotions, especially when they concerned Harumi, and now another villain was attempting to abuse that. Zane wanted to run out and tell the ninja what he had found, but right as he was getting up the Control Room whirred to life. A message appeared stating that there had been a break in at Borg Tower, and he ran out of the room but opted to jump off the ship alone instead of running to wake the others. Zane summoned his Elemental Dragon and he desperately hoped that he would be able to get there in time.

* * *

Lloyd was approaching Ninjago City, and he had an important question to ponder upon. Stealing the Golden Armor would not be difficult for him. He would barely have to lift a finger to do so, but he also wanted to steal it without being recorded or identified. Lloyd didn't particularly care if he tripped any of the alarms or anything, but for his purposes there had to be nothing tying the crime to him. If the ninja or anyone else found out that he had stolen the armor, they would most likely be able to track him down far easier. And quite frankly, Lloyd didn't want to ruin his spotless image quite yet either. The element of surprise was very valuable, and he had no intention of letting the ninja know his true intentions. Moreover, he couldn't allow himself to be followed either, as he would not let anyone interfere with him and his love ever again. So stealing the armor would take a bit more work and planning to do.

Finding his destination, Lloyd jumped down and released his dragon. He walked into the building and moved through until finding the correct room. He approached the door with caution. _How would I go about explaining this if I do get caught?_ With apprehension mounting, he tried the door. It wasn't open, so Lloyd sent a controlled beam of energy at the lock. It cleanly broke and fell off the door before he quickly plucked it out of the air. He pocketed the item and slowly pushed the door open.

The apartment was dark and deserted. Lloyd activated his green fire to light up his surroundings, and he saw that the room in front of him was a complete mess. There were random takeout containers and assorted clothes items strewn about everywhere. Collecting himself he hesitantly walked across the room and over to its adjacent bedroom. He slowly creaked the door open before sighing in relief. Dareth wasn't home, so Lloyd appeared to be in the clear. He quickly walked over to the closet and removed one of the several brown ninja suits that were hanging up. Lloyd felt slightly bad about pinning his crime on Dareth, but it was far easier than shutting down all of Cyrus Borg's security systems. Satisfied Lloyd moved to leave but heard footsteps approaching. Panicked he looked for a pathway of escape and saw a window. He opened it and jumped out, escaping right before Dareth stumbled into the room.

Lloyd tried to steady and calm himself; that had been too close. He quickly used his spinjitzu, fluidly changing into the brown gi. Lloyd begrudgingly slipped on a mesh armor made from vengestone, as he could not risk using his powers, and the green eyes would be a dead giveaway should he be caught on film. His natural eye colors, a lighter brown, were closer to Dareth's and far more common, so it was a necessary step. He probably wouldn't need his powers to steal the armor anyway, and he could still use his spinjitzu if he really needed to. Testing his theory, he activated his spinjitzu again and was satisfied to see a brown tornado instead of his normal green. Just as it had done so for Zane with his pink gi years prior, the outfit color swap had overridden the shade of Lloyd's spin. He left his green suit next to the building, covering and obscuring it with some nearby garbage. He really hoped it would still be there later.

Lloyd walked the short distance over to the tower, as he had not wanted to use his dragon anywhere in range of Borg's cameras. Approaching the dark and lifeless building, he paused before kicking the door open. Alarms immediately began ringing, but he had ran over to the elevator and gotten inside before the nindroids emerged to fight him. The button for the lower basement was restricted, but Lloyd took out an override key that he had swiped years prior and descended down to the vaults.

The elevator opened and he found himself face to face with a larger group of nindroids. Sighing to himself, as he had wanted to avoid confrontation, Lloyd used spinjitzu. The nindroids were taken aback, and all knocked away by the brown cyclone. Lloyd quickly ran past them, and pushed the door open. He was standing in a hallway, with several doors on either side. Remembering back to the time a few months ago when Borg had built the vaults, Lloyd knew that the door at the end of the hallway led to the Realm Crystal, and he was pretty sure that the first door on the left housed the armor. Another group of nindroids were waiting for him however, and he found himself backed into the third room. Looking around for some sort of weapon he could use, he noticed the Sword of Sanctuary lying slightly askew from its laser protection. Lloyd snatched it up and looked down at the sword. It showed that the nindroids were going to shoot at him, and Lloyd ducked accordingly. He then jumped up, making very quick work of the robots with the help of the valuable sword. He then quickly exited the room and ran back down the hall to the first room.

Lloyd entered, scanning the room for his prize. It was at the back of the room mounted on the wall, and it was not guarded by a laser grid. It made sense, as nearly anyone who came into contact with it would instantaneously die. Luckily, Lloyd was able to possess the Golden Armor however, and he removed it from its perch. He proceeded to run from the room, and was able to ward off the pursuing nindroids by waving the armor towards them. One touch would also disintegrate them, which was a very good reason for them to stay back. He moved past them all, working his way back to the elevator before looking in horror to see it missing. The doors were open but the elevator itself had been locked off on another floor.

He sighed once more, as he had really wanted to avoid using a second martial art, but Lloyd activated his airjitzu. The element-less airjitzu came off with a dull blue shade, and he was able to fly up and jump through an open door above. He had not made it back to floor one, but after stopping briefly, he flew up once more and succeeded in reaching the first floor. Lloyd ran out the door and emerged onto the streets of Ninjago City.

* * *

Zane flew through the night sky, and he could finally make out the tower approaching. Looking down he saw a lone figure exiting the building. Zane was shocked, and he had to double check his sensors to be sure, but all appearances suggested that Dareth had just broken into Borg Tower. Even more interesting was the revelation that not only was holding the Sword of Sanctuary, but he had the Golden Armor. The second one was extremely intriguing, as Zane had not thought that Dareth was anywhere close to being able to possess the golden power. Shaking himself from his surprise, he released his dragon and jumped down to the streets below.

_Ah, shit._ Lloyd thought to himself. Getting himself out of this situation was probably going to be quite difficult. He still couldn't use his powers, so defeating Zane wasn't going to be easy. The Sword would certainly help, but having to simultaneously lug around the armor would severely limit his chances to attack. And Lloyd couldn't just run away either, as he was obviously not not able to activate his dragon, but even if he could doing so would allow Zane the chance to to identify and follow him. Therefore Lloyd needed to incapacitate Zane before making his escape.

"Put down the sword and armor, and surrender yourself Dareth. There is no need to fight." This statement relieved Lloyd, as Zane was in fact fooled by the disguise. And if Zane wasn't going to strike, then he would. A sly grin formed under his mask, and Lloyd activated his spinjitzu. The action caught Zane quite off guard, as he had never seen Dareth use the martial art before, and he was thrown backwards. Lloyd looked down at the sword, and saw his moment of escape. The fight had gone far better than Lloyd would have imagined, as he was able to use the brief moment where Zane was down and out to fly away. He activated this airjitzy and landed safely on the roof of an nearby building. Zane looked back and saw that Dareth had completely vanished. He looked up and down the street, but Lloyd was nowhere to be found. This confused Zane even further, as he was utterly shocked at Dareth's new abilities. Lloyd walked across the roof and jumped down to the next street.

He broke into a run, making his way back to the apartment complex. Lloyd stopped outside the building, grabbing his suit and then activating his spinjitzu to remove the mesh and brown gi. He slipped the golden armor over his green suit and felt the surge of power. The armor disappeared, merging itself with Lloyd himself, and he felt the powers of the First Spinjitzu Master return to him. It had been so long since he had had access to his Golden Power, and it was a breath of fresh air. Lloyd then walked into the building and once more approached Dareth's corner pad. The door swung open easily, and he again walked through the cluttered space to reach the adjacent bedroom. He slowly opened the door, silently hoping that he would not have to confront the Brown Ninja, and he sighed in relief. Luck had been on his side, as Dareth was fast asleep. It seems he had not noticed the missing lock or ninja gi, and Dareth had apparently ignored the open window. Lloyd tiptoed over to the closet, and trying his hardest not to make any noise, he hung the suit back on its hanger.

He looked back, considering what would be his primary method of escape. _Should I leap from the window once more? Or would it be smarter to walk back out of the building?_ he asked. His choice was once again made for him, as he heard more footsteps approaching. Zane had caught up with him, and made the correct assumption that Dareth would return to his "secret headquarters." Dareth stirred slightly, and Lloyd immediately panicked, jumping straight through the window once again.

Lloyd now had just a small amount of time to plan his larger escape. The authorities would now be looking for Dareth, but they were also going to be looking for the sword and armor. The armor was now a non-factor; its powers having been directly absorbed by Lloyd, but the sword was a problem. Should he be found with it, he would be immediately incriminated, and Dareth could potentially be exonerated. Lloyd did not want to get rid of the sword now, as he had no other weapon on him, but it might be the smart thing to do. But then again, he couldn't afford to be caught at all, with or without the sword. Lloyd decided to keep it, at least for now. The more pressing issue to him was of course getting out of Ninjago City. He would obviously use his dragon for the return trip to the Dark Island, but using it here would be far too noticeable, especially if he activated his Golden Dragon as opposed to his normal Energy Dragon. And if Zane was here now, then the other ninja might not be too far behind. Lloyd began walking towards the city limits, hoping he would make it there without anyone noticing him.

* * *

Zane opened the unlocked door to the apartment; a multitude of questions going through his head. _How had Dareth managed to pull off such a heist? How could he possess the Golden Armor? When did Dareth learn Spinjitzu? Did Dareth have an Elemental Power, or had he managed to learn the martial art without one? And most importantly, why?_ He heard noise coming from the bedroom. Dareth was there, but Zane thought he had sensed another person. It had been there for only the briefest of moments, but Zane surmised that Dareth may have had an accomplice. That would probably explain the theft, as he found it unlikely Dareth would have managed such a feat by himself. Zane stormed over to the bedroom and kicked down the door. Dareth shot up, confusion and worry crossing his face. Spotting the open window, he quickly ran over to it. Zane peered out to the streets, but he didn't see anything abundantly suspicious. Out of the corner of his eye he thought he saw a figure turn the corner to an adjacent street, but he could not accurately identify them. Zane did not see the sword or the armor, and so he turned his attention back to the Brown Ninja.

"Zane? What are you doing here?" Dareth asked groggily.

Zane felt a sharp rise of anger and confusion. _Dareth knows exactly why I'm here, so why is he playing dumb?_ "There is an active arrest warrant out for you Dareth. I am programmed to follow and obey the law, and thus I must apprehend you and deliver you to the local authorities."

Zane reached for a pair of handcuffs and quickly restrained Dareth. He responded with a series of pleas and whining statements, all of which Zane tuned out so he could focus. He pulled up the contact for the police commissioner, and informed him that the Brown Ninja had been apprehended. Police arrived soon after and Dareth was taken away for questioning. Zane left them alone, allowing the police to run their own investigation on the complex, and headed back to the Bounty. He had quite a lot to tell his friends about.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah, I guess this is where Lloyd starts to turn a bit. He hasn't really done much yet but breaking into Borg Tower certainly isn't normal behavior for the law-abiding ninja and his actions will get even more hazy as the story progresses. For some reason I take immense pleasure in warping these characters and messing with their senses of morality, so hopefully that's of some interest to you all.


	6. Confusion

It was early morning by the time Lloyd returned to the Dark Island. It had taken him nearly an hour to reach the outskirts of Ninjago City on foot, but he was able to cross the sea in under half that upon his Golden Dragon. Only half a day had passed since his abduction, but his world had been completely flipped upside down during that time. Lloyd dismounted the dragon and landed upon the mountain ridge. He glanced around, clearly seeing the Celestial Clock, but not the Elemental Master.

"Uh, I'm back." he hesitantly announced. Lloyd had the opportunity to change destiny in this moment. This single point in time was emphatically central to the devastation that would come, and the ability to prevent it was quite literally within reach. Had Lloyd looked down at the Sword of Sanctuary, he would have been able to see the coming attack and avoid all of the wrath and ruin, but unfortunately it was all for naught.

"Yes, I suppose you are."

Lloyd turned at the sound of the voice. His eyes went wide as another cyan flash hit him and everything went dark. Lloyd collapsed and the sword clattered to the ground next to him. The Master of Dreams once more sauntered over to Lloyd's unconscious body. They reached down and peered quizzically at the sword. The craftsmanship and build quality was amazingly refined. The sword felt light and weightless, capable of broad, sweeping swings with little effort, while still being very effective as a blade. And of course its powers of precognition were infinitely valuable. They picked up the sword and slashed out at Lloyd's right cheek. Blood began to seep from the open wound and pool up on the ground under his head.

A wicked grin crossed their face.

* * *

"And then I saw Dareth running out of Borg Tower, clutching the Sword of Sanctuary and the Golden Armor." Zane concluded. He had been discussing his nighttime escapades for quite a while now, and he was finally getting to the really interesting part. Zane plugged himself into the computer and he pulled up the footage from his memory banks to show the group.

"You know, I always thought Dareth was holding out on us." Jay laughed.

"How could Dareth possibly hold the Golden Armor? If none of us could possess all the Golden Weapons or the Golden Armor, how could Dareth of all people manage it?" Cole asked.

"It is possible that when I sacrificed my original body to defeat the Overlord, the Golden Armor may have been permanently weakened or damaged. No one since has attempted to possess the armor until this very instance, so we have no way of confirming or denying the validity of my hypothesis." Zane responded.

The group stood in silence before Zane continued with his spiel. "There is still more to show." he added. Zane resumed the video and they all jumped in surprise at Dareth's use of Spinjitzu.

"How on Earth did Dareth learn Spinjitzu? Did one of you teach him?" Kai asked, tossing an accusatory glare at everyone present.

"No." they all responded.

Nya leaned over to Jay and whispered, "It's like that stupid Doubloon guy." He gave her a knowing nod.

Zane continued the footage again, showing how Dareth had disappeared soon after. "I still am unsure how he escaped so quickly." he responded. "However, I have managed to acquire the actual footage of the heist, and it may help explain his sudden escape."

Zane loaded the security footage and skipped through until he got to the bit in question. They saw Dareth using Airjitzu to ascend the floors of Borg Tower, and all of the ninja were once again shocked.

"But why was his Airjitzu blue?" Jay asked. "He better not be stealing my color." he quietly added.

"And are we sure that this is actually Dareth?" Nya asked. "Maybe someone was just pretending to be him."

Zane pondered upon the idea. He hadn't really considered it as an option, but it made quite a bit of sense. Dareth's motives seemed shaky at best, so maybe he was in fact innocent.

"It is possible," he finally admitted. "Dareth said nothing to me when I encountered him, and his voice was not picked up in any of the security footage. Now to answer Jay's question, I believe there are three plausible explanations for how he used both martial arts. Firstly, that Dareth does not have any Elemental Powers. Brown could simply be his natural color of Spinjitzu, like Misako's silver or Doubloon's gold." Zane showed footage of both to emphasize his point.

"And the blue is similar to the shade the four of us had when he first used Airjitzu. Jay, Kai, Cole, and I all had the same blue color originally because we learned Airjitzu when we were without our powers. Lloyd was still possessed by Morro, and at that time our powers were entirely dependent on Lloyd. By now are powers have grown and they are no longer tied to Lloyd's health, but they were back then."

"Now, the second possibility is that Dareth actually does possess an Elemental Power, and that the color of his Spinjitzu was overridden by his brown gi. As you may recall, Lloyd briefly turned my ninja gi pink by washing it with Kai's."

"Oh yeah!" Kai chuckled. "Do you guys remember when Lloyd was a villain?"

The group erupted in laughter, and they went on a brief tangent about his failed exploits before Zane redirected the conversation.

"As I was saying, my Spinjitzu was also briefly changed to a pink color during that time." Zane pulled up a clip of it out from his memory banks. "We do not know the exact circumstances needed to change the color of one's Spinjitzu, but it is clearly possible, so it may have happened here. If that were the case, then the blue Airjitzu would then accurately represent Dareth's elemental power. I am unsure of what element he could possess, but the most logical conclusion would be that Dareth is this Master of Dreams. The time frames match up, and it is therefore possible that he may have wanted to use the Armor in his plans. Although in the footage we can see that Dareth only grabbed the sword for use as a weapon, which does add a slight problem to this explanation. Why would he have needed the sword if he had elemental powers? If he does have them, he's never shown them to us before. Dareth only used the sword, and the pair of martial arts for his theft."

"The third possibility is that Dareth has powers, but he was purposefully hiding them. As you can see through the footage, he was wearing a mesh overlay on top of his suit. None of us have ever seen Dareth wear such a thing before, but it does look rather similar to vengestone. If this were the case, it would fit with the first explanation regarding the color of his Airjitzu and Spinjitzu, but here it would also explain his use of the sword. What reason Dareth would have to intentionally limit himself like this is unknown, but it would most likely be out of a desire to hide his element. All three of these explanations are also entirely possible if Dareth was in fact framed. I find the first explanation to be the most probable out of the three, but how he learned the martial arts is still unexplained."

"I later managed to track Dareth to his corner pad and apprehend him," Zane said as he adjusted the footage, "but I thought I heard someone with him. My sensors picked up another person's heart rate and footprints, as it seems they ran as soon as I arrived. I found an open window in Dareth's room, but if there was anyone, they were too far out of reach. As the weapon and armor were not found with Dareth and they have yet to be located at all, it is most likely that Dareth was in fact working with or for someone else. It appears even more likely that Dareth was being possessed or controlled, as he still denies committing the crimes and he seems genuinely confused about the entire situation. As much as we may like to free him from Kryptarium Prison, we must find Lloyd. That is our top priority right now, and we can worry about Dareth and any possible criminal associates at a later time."

"We have got to find him quickly too, or he might not be the same ever again. We can't let this Master of Dreams corrupt our Lloyd!" Nya cried.

The rest of the ninja agreed, and they quickly ran off to research or further search for the answers they desperately needed.

* * *

_He walked out onto the deck of the ship. Looking down he could see the beginning of an electrical storm brewing, but for now the Sun was still out. The light was being slightly broken up by the clouds, and it reflected beautifully off of her hair, creating a light yellow shade that bounced across their bodies. His gaze lay off in distance; far away from the ship with a slight hint sadness in his eyes._

" _My father told me they call this the Dead Man's Squall." he said with a tinge of bitterness creeping through his flat and measured tone._

_She looked over towards him, correctly guessing that his sadness was related to his father. It seemed like a very sore subject for Lloyd, especially considering that the Sons of Garmadon were planning upon resurrecting him very soon._

" _Do you remember much about your father before he left you as a child?" she asked hesitantly. He looked up, his face showing even more sorrow than before. Clearly Lloyd still felt a ton of grief over his father's death, and he seemed very insecure with his emotions. Getting no response, she added "When he was… bad?"_

_Lloyd sighed, turning his gaze back to the storm. "No, not really. I was too young." he remarked. He still felt hurt about the absence of his parents throughout his childhood. Growing up in the shadow of Ninjago's greatest villain had left lasting effects on his growth and development. His childhood had been far from normal, and then it had been abruptly cut short. He had grown up more cold and distant than he sometimes cared to admit._

_Attempting to shift the subject away from his complicated feelings, Lloyd asked "What about your parents?" She was a little taken aback by the question. Her parents were dead due in part to Lloyd's actions, and it was a point of extreme resentment for her. She had held a grudge against him for opening the Serpentine Tombs for the better part of her life at this point, but she couldn't lash out at him now. She needed his trust, and not only for her plan. Harumi had been surprised to learn just how similar they truly were, and she would be lying if she said that she wasn't having any second thoughts._

" _Sometimes in my dreams, they're right next to me. It's like they're still here, but then I, I wake up." She choked up towards the end, a tiny bit of her anguish sneaking through. Lloyd looked over at her, finding himself slightly comforted by their shared pain. "You're not alone, Rumi." he said softly, turning away once more. He was still feeling very uncomfortable with their conversation, and part of him kind of just wanted to walk away._

" _Neither are you." she quickly responded. She didn't quite know why, but seeing Lloyd in pain like this made her feel worse. He was still holding back, and she really needed to get to know him. "I know it's difficult to think that they're trying to bring your father back. I can't imagine what must be going through your head." Lloyd rolled his eyes, quietly mumbling, "You got that right." under his breath. She felt her anger rise at his response. He was still not opening his heart to her, and he was at times being outright dismissive towards her feelings. She grabbed his shoulder and made him look over towards her. His face was looking down, the pain still consuming him._

" _Whatever happens, I'll be here." His face brightened at her sentiment, and she leaned over to kiss him._

_Lloyd pulled back, rejecting her sign of affection. He looked completely shocked by her advances and he ran off, having difficulty contemplating what had just happened. She looked back to the storm, trying her hardest to stop the tears forming in her eyes. How could he reject her like that? It hurt her more than she could have possibly imagined, and she just didn't understand his coldness._

* * *

Lloyd woke with a start, flabbergasted by what he had seen. He couldn't understand why he would have ever rejected her advances, and he really wished that he wasn't so awkward. _I know I was in love Harumi, and I'm sure of that belief, but why does it always feel so wrong? Why can't I ever just be at peace with my feelings?_ He sighed, once again perplexed by his dreams, and he tasted blood. His face was bleeding out; a deep gash had been cut in his cheek. _When the hell did this happen?_ he asked himself. It ultimately didn't matter to him however. Nothing hurt more than a blow to the heart, and that constant misery had numbed him completely to physical pain.

Lloyd sat up, looking around at his surroundings. He was housed in a cell, and he once again couldn't access his powers. Lloyd groaned in frustration; he had had it up to here with vengestone. Looking out through the bars he saw a barren room; resembling a blank, endless void of stone. Where was his captor? _What happened this time, and how did I end up powerless again?_ Lloyd thought back, straining his memories. _I arrived at the Dark Island, looked around, and then nothing. How did I end up imprisoned, and when was I cut with a sword?_ He had so many questions, and absolutely nothing to go on.

A noise to his left shocked him out of trance. A door opened, and the answer to every one of his questions conveniently walked in, arrogantly whipping around the Sword of Sanctuary. _Of course._ he thought. Why would he be surprised at this point? _So, so many people have wanted to exploit my power over the years._ he sadly remarked.

"Ah, welcome back to the world of the living Lloyd. Been enjoying your dreams so far?"

He felt his blood boil and he lashed out against the manipulative con. "Goddamn it! Why can't you people just leave me alone for once? Why is it always ME that has to suffer?!"

"Oh, it's nothing personal Lloyd. Your power is simply far more desirable than the boring old _water_ or _ice._ " they said with an air of disgust. "Your friends want your powers too you know." Lloyd's eyes shot up with malice once more, but he was cut off as the Elemental Master continued.

"You have been used by the ninja as nothing more than a weapon! They never cared for you, only your power."

Lloyd froze. It reminded him of something his father had told him years prior. _The Golden Power needs to be protected, honored. Evil forces will seek it, try to take it for their own. It seduces. Even your friends may one day covet it._ He had dismissed him at the time, but he had been lying to himself.

As much as Lloyd hated to admit it, there was a lot of truth in their statement. When he had first joined the ninja, every one of them had hated him. They had despised him with a bitter and burning passion, and only when he was revealed to be the Green Ninja did they care. _Kai had seriously considered letting me die for the stupid fangblade!_ Only Nya had liked him then, as she was the only one who could see past his poor misguided choices and truly care. Even after all the years he had spent with the group Lloyd still felt slightly ostracized by them. None of his friends were ever there to help him when he felt the most vulnerable and lonely. _They will never understand me._

He looked up towards the strange person, once again perplexed by their idiosyncrasies. "I don't completely agree with you, but there's probably some truth to that. I really am alone in this world." He looked down to his feet, staring at the blood that was dripping down onto the stone floor. _I will never get Harumi back again- hold on a second. They said they were going to bring her back. What the hell?!_

His eyes shot up once again, his bloody face marked by a vicious hatred Lloyd never thought he could feel. "You said you would bring her back!"

"Why the hell would I possibly have helped you with your perverted request?" they spat, visibly recoiling at the mere suggestion. "You're practically an incel at this point!"

"Shut up!" he screamed before collapsing and falling to this knees. How had he been so foolish? Lloyd had let himself get manipulated again, and he scolded himself for it. _Why am I so goddamn trusting? Why can't I ever see these smug asshats for what they are?_ He slowly collected himself and faced his enemy once more. "What the hell do you actually want from me?"

"Oh finally, I was getting so bored of your shitty feelings. I want revenge against your pitiful uncle, plain and simple. And I intend to make it the most bitter it could possibly be, because you are going to help me do it."

"I would never hurt my family!" Lloyd yelled, purposefully spitting some of his blood at the obnoxious adversary. They seemed genuinely surprised and a bit taken aback by the defiance, but their aggravating detachment soon returned in spades.

"Of course you wouldn't. The perfect Green Ninja could never be so cruel. But they deserve your hate Lloyd. They deserve to feel the same pain that you feel, the same pain that I feel! Your master took my family from me, leaving another young child alone in the world! He and all the other ninja deserve to feel like we do Lloyd! They deserve to feel what it's like to be alone."

_No, I won't let it happen this time!_ Lloyd's past truly was coming back to haunt him. It seemed that another Harumi was in his presence, another lost soul consumed by grief and everlasting trauma. And he was going to make sure that they would not succeed this time around.

"You're wrong! As much as I loved Rumi, her pain brought her nothing but ruin. Holding on to that anger for so long will only hurt you more in the end. You have to deal with your pain, not let it control you! Everyone in this world has dealt with grief at some point in their life, us more than most. But you have to move on eventually. You can't just let your anger continue to grow and fester, or it'll end up destroying you in the process." he finished, slightly enjoying being able to so eloquently critique and correct the bastard.

"Oh, how very mature and wise of you Lloyd. I'm sure you've completely moved on from your romantic feelings for-oh wait, no you haven't! You are just as guilty as I am and in time you will join me willingly _._ I have my ways of breaking you."

They fired another beam at him and he slumped to the ground again.

"I wonder how long you'll last. Just how long will it be before you snap?"

* * *

__

_Imprisoned Lloyd_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well that was an obvious twist that everyone except Lloyd saw coming.


	7. Doubt

_He was standing on the roof of a building. The ground beneath his heels was rigid, laid out in a tiled pattern. Looking up he sawa blue-clad stranger was walking towards him, swinging a pair of nunchucks ominously. He ran away in fear, reaching the edge of the roof and looking down. A wave of clouds swirled around him, obscuring the distant ground from view. He gulped in fright, trying to pull back from the temptation to jump. It would be so easy… All his troubles would be over_ _…_

" _Lloyd Montgomery Garmadon! You come here right now!" someone barked. Lloyd didn't hear him, still staring down longingly at the ground below. He didn't want to leave. The last thing he wanted was to be forced to be with the stupid ninja. The blue one took a swipe at him, but he ducked out of the way. He was not planning on going quietly._

" _What should we do with him? Wash his mouth out with soap for a year?" another voice asked. Lloyd looked over with fury, glaring at the black-clad foe. Why did they hate me so much? he wondered. All I have done I have done to try to be like my dad, who isn't here! Both of my parents are gone, and I just want to see them again! he thought._

" _Ground him indefinitely?" the red one joked. Lloyd ignored the taunt, turning his focus back to his pursuer. In his moment of distraction he had let the blue man catch up to him, but Lloyd adjusted quickly, dodging the nunchucks and knocking them out of reach. "Have him sit in a corner for a century?" the white ninja remarked. The three numskulls were still ignoring his confrontation, and they would pay dearly._

_Lloyd grabbed the nunchucks, and launched himself at the trio. He caught them by surprise, knocking two of them back off the roof. The white one managed to avoid the swing at the last moment, but he quickly ran over to the edge, attempting to save his falling brothers. "Zane!" the blue man yelled before also running over towards the edge. Lloyd walked over slowly, charging up the nunchucks to finish them off. Two hands grabbed him, pulling him back from attacking them. He looked up in horror to see his uncle; his face flushed with anger._

" _I know exactly what we must do." he said with a piercing surety._

_Lloyd looked up in fear as he felt himself being pulled further backwards. He gulped, and he was thrown forwards. Lloyd flew through the air, tumbling over the roof before beginning to plummet towards the ground. His eyes widened, before he slammed head first into the grass._

* * *

Lloyd woke with a start. He didn't know whether he should be relieved or worried, as he had finally stopped dreaming about Harumi. Unfortunately the abuse he had suffered at the hands of his friends and family was now front and center, and it was an even more concerning issue. _Have my friends ever truly liked me?_ he questioned. _Was I simply a pawn for destiny?_ He shook his head, no longer sure of what to believe. _It's just not fair!_ he thought, _I've done nothing to deserve all this pain, all this misery, but it keeps happening! Zane and Cole have both suffered but what has ever happened to Jay, Kai, or Nya? Literally nothing! he mentally screamed._

"So Lloyd?" The voice drew him out of another tangent of thought, and he looked up at his eccentric captor. The Master of Dreams had spruced the place up a bit since he was last awake. Glancing around, Lloyd saw that they had somehow gotten a huge stack of reading materials. Tons of comic books and magazines were strewn around the room, and the Master had their feet kicked back on a newly-acquired table. They looked down from the issue of Starfarer and leaned up in their chair.

"You ready to get some revenge on those pesky ninja yet?" they inquired.

"Never." he spat, with more blood dripping down his enraged face.

"Suit yourself." They shrugged, firing off another cyan beam at the stubborn ninja. His body fell to the ground once again.

They set down the comic on the edge of the table. Getting up from the comfortable swivel chair, the conniving asshole slowly meandered over to Lloyd's crumpled body. "Take all the time you need Lloyd." they said with a biting tone. "I'm patient. I can wait."

They grabbed the Sword of Sanctuary from its spot resting against the wall, and they slashed out at Lloyd's wrist. More blood seeped itself into the stone floor, further staining the barren landscape. The Master of Dreams was going to use every possible tool at their disposal to get what they wanted. Every. Single. Advantage.

* * *

Nya sat on the edge of her bed, staring down at the photo on her nightstand. She had been lost in thought for what seemed like hours now, and her worries were only growing. There was someone missing from the picture, a loss that was only eating at her more and more. She sighed with sorrow, remembering fondly that wide-eyed boy that had joined their team so long ago. He was now fully developed, having adjusted well to the role that had been bestowed upon him. But Nya now wondered whether Lloyd's tumultuous upbringing was still shining through, threatening to destroy all they had accomplished. Lloyd had become more far quiet and reserved as he had grown, and she feared that he might still be too trusting. He had immense difficulty expressing his true thoughts and feelings, a reality that had only been worsened by his toxic relationship with Harumi. She wasn't sure if he would ever really heal from his pain.

"Nya?"

The spell was broken, and she turned to see Jay leaning against her door frame. "Are you, uh, doing alright? You've been staring at that old picture for like, a really long time now." he said with an air of uncertainty.

Nya sighed, finding herself slightly comforted and equally flattered by his awkward concern. "I'm just really worried about him. I don't like seeing him getting hurt, and I'm scared he might not come back as the same person."

Jay looked at her with longing; a feeling of jealousy slithering into his mind. _Why does she care so much about him? I'm her boyfriend, and yet she spends all of her obsessing over Lloyd!_ Jay shook the doubts from his mind, once again dismissing his darker worries. "I'm sure he'll be fine." he said, although he wasn't actually sure of it himself. "The little guy's had a rough life, but he's gotten past every obstacle so far. He'll find a way."

"Yeah, you're probably right." she responded. Jay smiled, for he always knew how to get through to her. "I just can't help but worry though. I don't know, I guess I've always felt a strong connection with him." His eyes narrowed, the feelings of doubt quickly returning and consuming him.

"Oh really?" he asked bluntly. "What's so special that you have with him, but not me?" he questioned, his anger rising as his mind went wild with anxiety. "Jay…" she started, but he cut her off. "No seriously! What does he have that I don't?!" he yelled.

"Jay, it's not like that. We've always been the youngest ones of the group, and I guess I've just always bonded with him more than any of you have. Lord knows all of you guys treated him like complete trash when he first showed up." she said.

Jay's anger dissipated, and he looked down in shame. He had entirely forgotten about their mistreatment of Lloyd until she brought it up. _Why am I always so quick to jump to conclusions?_ he wondered. _Why do I think Nya's just going to leave me at a moment's notice?_ _I should trust her more at this point, but I just get so worried that she'll fall for someone else. Is it because I don't think I'm good enough for her?_

"I, I'm sorry Nya. I don't know what came over. I shouldn't have accused you of anything, and I never should have hurt Lloyd. But you remember what he was like!" he pleaded. "He was just a bratty kid, and we didn't know any better. It took him quite a while to turn into the champion of all things good and honest that we know today."

Nya nodded slightly, accepting his thinly-veiled apology. "I don't blame you for your actions Jay. But you have to understand that the pain has only grown in him. Lloyd's had a tough life, and he's dealt with more hardship than most. He didn't have either of his parents growing up, and so he tried to connect with his dad by being bad. After he became the Golden Ninja, Lloyd finally got his father back, and he was coming to terms with their past, when his father was abruptly taken from him once more. Then when he had begun to move past his father's death, Lord Garmadon was resurrected, and Lloyd had to see the man he loved destroyed and corrupted. He still has his mother, but don't forget that she was also absent for a lot of life. And she stills leaves a lot now. Growing up without either of his parents was really hard for him."

She paused, looking over with sadness at the picture of the team. "But I think that out of all he's gone through, Harumi hurt him the most. I can't imagine how horrible that must have been for him, to have his heart broken like that. I don't think that wound is going to heal any time soon."

Jay looked up at her, confusion mounting in his eyes. "If Lloyd was hurting so much, why didn't he talk to anyone about it?" he asked. "We could have helped him work through his problems, but he just shut us out again. We're his friends, and we really do care for him. Why can't he see that?"

She sighed, and shrugged. "I don't know." she remarked sadly. "He's never given enough attention to his own feelings. For him, the greater good comes first, and he always seems to put himself last. Perhaps he just didn't couldn't bear to show us any of his weakness or vulnerabilities." she said, somberly gazing towards the ground.

"We'll get him back Nya." Jay stated assuredly. "Whatever it takes, we'll find him."

Nya smiled softly, once again finding herself calmed by his clumsy charm. "I know we will." she said softly.

"I'm just scared that he won't be the man we love when we do."

* * *

_He found himself standing in a decorated corridor; paintings and sculptures lined each wall, separated by the scarlet columns. He turned, hearing the sound of a door opening. A figure quickly ran out, rushing past to the opposite direction. He was shocked, quite taken aback by her sudden appearance. It had been years since he had last seen her, and for her to be here now made little sense._

" _Misako?"_

_She stopped in her tracks. He was really here, right now? She turned over towards him, quite happy to see him again. "Wu." she remarked. He was older, wiser, but she saw pain in his eyes. She had chosen Garmadon over him, and although he had never shown or acted upon it, she knew that Wu had felt the same way about her._

_Feelings of regret and sorrow began to well within him, but he pushed them away. There was nothing to be sad about. He wouldn't have Lloyd otherwise._ " _I, uh…"_

" _It's been a long time." she answered. They stared at each other, both unsure of how to move forward. Much had happened since their last meeting, but what was there to say? The silence was deafening, and they were both glad when it was broken by the sound of someone clearing their throat._

_"So, uh, you gonna introduce us?"_

_The four ninja approached, having followed their Sensei through the Museum. He looked over towards them, and then back at her, hesitant on how he should handle the situation. Was now the time to tell them the truth? She nodded slightly at him, and he relented._

" _Uh, yes." he answered. "This is Misako, Lloyd's mother."_

_The four teenage heroes gasped in surprise, recoiling back from the revelation. Wu had never talked about Lloyd's mother before, and they had all assumed that she had died or something. But there she was, standing right next to their Sensei._

" _My_ _…_ _my mother?"_

_They all turned at his voice, and they saw Lloyd slowly approaching. His face was marred with confusion and anguish, and his eyes were lit with a fiery animosity. Where had she been for all of this time? He had begrudgingly understood why he couldn't have grown up with his father, as the Lord of Darkness and King of Shadows had not been a very good influence on him. But what reason did she have for abandoning him? Why wasn't he loved?_

_She looked up, her eyes widened with shock. "Lloyd?" He was old, completely grown up now. It didn't make sense, he should still be a kid! she questioned. What had caused his rapid development? "My little boy? You're so much bigger than I remember."_

_He felt the anger rising at the statement. Of course she wouldn't recognize me now! he thought. She had abandoned him, leaving him to spend his childhood at that godforsaken boarding school. He felt himself shudder as several unpleasant memories returned, but he was more upset that she hadn't been willing to care for him._

" _Yeah, well it's been a long time." he said, turning away from her with contempt._

_She looked down, crestfallen by his reaction. All this time she had been trying to prevent the final battle from happening; attempting to keep their family together. His feelings were understandable, but they still saddened her. "I didn't want us to meet like this."_

_Lloyd once again found his frustration growing. Was she going to meet me at some point?! he wondered. Did she ever plan on being a part of my life, or was her goal to just keep ignoring me forever?_

" _I have a reason for why I've been away." she quickly added._

" _Yeah, well I don't want to hear it!" Lloyd barked. He quickly turned on his heels and stormed off. "Lloyd wait!" she cried. "Please." she quietly added. He ignored her and kept walking through to the next room._

" _Leave me alone!" he screamed before slamming the door shut._

* * *

Lloyd woke with a start. He was in for a world of hurt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So in this chapter the narrative did start to shift away from the unrequited Llorumi shipping a bit, but anyone who actually cares about that needn't worry, as it will be back in droves.


	8. Futility

Kai leaned up against the deck of the Bounty, staring off at the horizon. They had spent nearly the whole day backtracking and trying to find a path to follow that would lead them to Lloyd, but they had literally nothing to go on. There were no clues, no possible threads to follow up on. It was if he had vanished off the face of the Earth, leaving their team empty and divided without him. Kai sighed, scolding himself for what had happened. _I said I would look out for him._ he thought. _I promised Lloyd that I would protect him but I never do! I can't ever help him whenever he needs it the most._

Another person walked up and joined Kai on the deck. Looking over he saw his sister Nya, smiling softly at him. "How are you doing?" she asked, concern beginning to slide across her face.

"Fine I guess." he quickly responded, turning his attention back to the night sky. "I don't know, it's just-" he sputtered, unable to fully put his feelings into words.

"You feel that you're at fault for his disappearance?" she prodded.

"Well yes!" he answered, frustration mounting in his tone as he began to vent to her. "I promised him all those years ago that I would watch out for him, that I would be there for him. And every time I'm just powerless to protect him! First it was Morro's possession, then it was Harumi's manipulation, and now this. All these people are always after him, attracted by his tremendous power and abilities, and I can't ever stop them." he finished, as the sadness started to overpower his anger.

"Kai, you shouldn't beat yourself up over this." she said worriedly. "All of us are to blame for his abduction, and we all have to do our part to get him back. I've had my own feelings of regret and guilt over the whole situation, and I'm sure the rest of the guys have felt that as well. But right now we need to find him." she stated, with a wave of confidence and surety that put Kai at ease.

"Yeah, you're right." _Of course she was. After all, sitting around and moping about Lloyd isn't going to get him back._ he thought to himself. "But we don't have anything to go on." he pointed out.

Nya's face lit up, and a knowing smile crossed her face. "Well, that's why I was sent to get you." she remarked cheerfully. "There's a team meeting being held in the Control Room now, so let's go see what everyone else thinks."

Kai smiled, and walked back into the ship. They crossed the hallway, rushing through with such a pace that they nearly ran into Jay walking out of his room. "Hey!" he cried. "Watch it hair gel!"

"Well hurry up then motormouth." Kai retorted, before quickly running past towards the door of the Control Room. He pushed it open, finding the rest of the gang waiting patiently for their arrival.

"Welcome back Masters of Fire, Water, and Lightning." remarked Cole in a very tired and grim tone. "Took you long enough." he quietly added.

"Now that everyone is present, we can discuss our plans to find Lloyd." Zane said curtly. Zane, with his logical computing and reasoning, had sort of shifted into the role of the team leader in Lloyd's absence. It was a position none of them really wanted, as they were still hurting over their loss. At this point he was really the only one keeping them on track with their search efforts. "Now, I believe that any further investigation of his disappearance would be futile at this point, as we have found absolutely nothing indicating where Lloyd may have been taken. Instead, we should focus on simply looking for him."

The ninja felt their eyes widen in surprise and uncertainty. "Wait, you mean you want us to search the entire realm of Ninjago?" Jay questioned. "That could take days, if not weeks! By the time we track him down it may already be too late. And what if this Master of Dream just gets up and moves when we get too close, or what if they aren't staying in a fixed location at all?"

"Yeah Zane, I'm not sure that's really as feasible as you think. Ninjago is a vast world, and there are a ton of remote and out of reach locations he could be hidden away. And frankly, for all we know he might not even be in Ninjago any more!" Cole responded.

He nodded, acknowledging their concerns and worries. "Well, that is why we won't be searching for him alone. I strongly advise that we make the general public aware of Lloyd's disappearance, so that people all across the realm can help use look for him."

The group once again reacted with very mixed feelings. It was the logical and smart thing to do, but it of course had its own set of disadvantages and issues.

"Don't you think that's a little risky Zane?" Kai inquired. "I mean, if any other villains hear that Lloyd's gone, we may find ourselves dealing with a lot more problems than one rogue Elemental Master. What better time would there be for our enemies to strike then when our leader is gone?" he posed.

"Why, are you scared of Ninjago's criminals now Kai?" Jay asked jokingly.

" _No_ , it's just something that could quickly bog down our investigation." he retorted sharply. "I'm sure tons of people would be chomping at the bit to go out and commit crimes if they knew that the Green Ninja was out of commission." Seeing looks of hesitance and confusion across his friends, Kai continued with his argument.

"And I'm not saying that we should keep this whole situation totally secret, but maybe we should just be a bit more selective with who we tell. Perhaps we could let the police know, and possibly notify the other Elemental Masters, but I don't think we should alert everyone in Ninjago." Kai suggested.

Zane considered the idea. "There is some validity to your point Kai." he conceded. "Revealing Lloyd's disappearance publicly could have severe unintended consequences. However, I have run simulations of every possible tactic and strategy we could take at this point, and this is the most likely scenario in which we can track Lloyd down the soonest. Since that is our primary goal and objective, I consider any other factors to be negligible." he stated.

"Yeah, getting Lloyd back is all that matters." Cole responded. "So what if we have to beat up some more bad guys than usual?"

"I don't know, personally I've been itching to get back out there." Jay said enthusiastically.

"The decision must be unanimous." Master Wu chimed in. "Whatever you all decide, you must do it together. Keeping your team united will be essential to the success of your mission."

"Well I'm in." Jay chirped.

"As am I." Nya responded.

"Me too." Cole said.

"As it was my proposal, I obviously agree to it." Zane stated.

All eyes turned to Kai. He looked unsure, and his face was marred with concern. But he shook away his fears and he smiled at them. "I'll do it." he said, a creeping level of doubt still present in his voice. "Whatever it takes to get Lloyd back."

"Excellent." Zane said. "With that out of the way, I shall inform the local authorities and news stations at once." He quickly left, and the group soon followed. Kai stood still, rooted to the spot by his developing train of thoughts. _What if telling the world only hurts him more?_ he questioned. _If the news reaches Lloyd's captor, they may leave for safer hiding. What if Lloyd isn't even in Ninjago anymore?_ The dark thoughts were rampant; festering in him like a parasitical virus, and nothing could shake his incessant worries and anxiety.

* * *

_Lloyd was standing on a surface made of rock, a landing overlooking the vast sea of orange that was slowly rising upwards. To his right he could see a figure moving up a flight of stairs; a red blur darting back and forth through obstacles and traps. It was Kai, blindly running towards the flash of gold and silver up ahead, his ultimate prize and what he thought would be the key to unlock his True Potential._

" _Leave it Kai, it's not worth your life!" Jay shouted out from behind the other ninja._

_Kai ignored the voice of reason, continuing with his foolhardy mission. "Not without that fangblade!" he called back through gritted teeth. The lava was rising; soon it had consumed nearly all of the structure and rock below them, but he would not stop. The only thing he cared about was getting to that fangblade; he could not think of anything else._

_Lloyd looked back up at the group, confused by Kai's defiant and stubborn actions. "But what about Kai?" he questioned. They gave no response, evidently not willing to go after him. Lloyd looked back, seeing him still chasing after the blade. "Kai? Kai!" he called, hoping to get the hothead to come back so they could escape the unstable volcano. He looked down as he felt the rock beneath his feet shifting, and the part he was standing on broke off from the wall. He reached back, desperately trying to grab hold of his father's hand, but it was too late. Lloyd plummeted downwards, his piece of rock landing dead-center in the ocean of lava._

" _Dad!" he cried. "I'm sinking!" His safe haven of ground was slowly being drowned by the surrounding liquid sludge, and there was no one to help him. Just then he saw a silver blur knocked out from the wall above, landing near the edge of the volcano. Kai had wrenched his sword from the wall, only for the fangblade to fall down to the lava below. He quickly jumped down, landing on another spare bit of rubble, and reached out for the blade. It was just out of reach, but he had to be quick as the blade was sinking into the lava._

" _Kai! Help me!"_

_This shook him from his task and he looked around, trying to locate the source of the voice. Lloyd was laying on a floating rock, stuck precariously in the middle of the wall of lava. His eyes looked up in sadness, pleading for Kai to save him. Kai looked back to the slipping blade, and then at Lloyd. What was more important? he asked himself. Stopping Pythor from resurrecting the Great Devour? Or saving the bratty kid that had released the Serpentine? He knew what the answer was in his heart._

_Kai reached out and grabbed the blade. His body began to glow, exuding a bright shade of white and red. He looked over sadly at Lloyd, before flying upwards in a ball of fire. The volcano shook, erupting out with a spew of lava and molten rock._

" _Kai!"_

* * *

Lloyd woke with a start, shaking himself from his dream. Or was it a memory? He could have sworn that events had gone differently, or had they? He couldn't make sense of the dark vision, unsure of what to think. Sitting up he felt a twinge of pain in his wrist. He looked over, and saw yet another open wound bleeding profusely. He sighed, wishing profoundly that he had left the Sword of Sanctuary behind. But this had become his life now; and he could no longer remember or make sense of anything. Time was all a blur, reality a muddled mess of tortuous dreams. Lloyd guessed that he had probably spent no more than 5 minutes awake each day, that he had been consumed by nightmares and visions for a near eternity. His mouth felt parched, very dried out and pained. The only thing Lloyd had tasted since the start of his confinement was his own blood seeping down from his face, and he could no longer muster the strength to even stand up.

With a tremendous effort he tilted his head upwards, scanning his surroundings once more. Once again he saw more changes and updates, new furnishing and amenities than were not previously visible. The Master of Dreams sat upon a couch, slouching back and staring over at a television. The channel was set to NGTV, and Lloyd was intrigued to find himself plastered all over the screen. He leaned in, straining his ears to try and to listen to the broadcast.

"We are now getting reports that the Green Ninja has disappeared." said the voice of the intrepid reporter Gayle Gossip. Lloyd recoiled at the news, slightly surprised but equally concerned to hear that his absence was now known to the entire world. "According to the ninja, he vanished from the Monastery of Spinjitzu two days ago and has not been seen in the public since." _Two days?_ he thought. _Has it really been that short of a time? Jeez._

"However, we have located an eyewitness who says that they saw the Green Ninja several hours after his disappearance. The man, who lives right here in Ninjago City, claims to have spotted Lloyd walking down the streets of Ninjago City in the early hours of the morning." Lloyd panicked at the thought. Had someone spotted him with the sword? Could he now possibly be incriminated with the theft?

The microphone had been turned towards an eldery gentleman."So I happened to wake up pretty early, around 4 in the morning or somethin'." he began. "I went to go walk my dog before heading back to bed, and while I was out I coulda sworn I saw that green ninja guy. He was casually walking down the street, like nothing was wrong or anything. I think he was carrying some sort of fancy golden sword I hadn't ever seen before. Looked pretty expensive and rare, but it didn't look out of place. Those ninja always got all them fancy gadgets and weapons, so I didn't think much of it. But now it turns out I that might be the last person to have ever seen him!" the man laughed, befuddled by his random moment in the spotlight.

"Ah shit." Lloyd muttered under his breath. He was now connected with the theft at Borg Towers, and that was very, very bad. _What am I going to say if I have to explain why I stole the Armor and Sword?_ he asked himself. _What, that I stole the Armor so I could try to resurrect my lost love, you know, that crazy princess that took over Ninjago a few months ago? Yeah, her._ He shook his head, trying not to imagine just how horribly his friends would react to the truth.

"Oh hello again Lloyd." responded the narcissistic jackass reclining on the sofa. "Real exciting news, right?" they muttered sarcastically. "Well, I'm not sure that your ninja friends would take kindly to any of your more questionable actions and ambitions, now would they?"

Lloyd began to panic, but his fears were quickly put to rest. "Oh, don't worry Lloyd, I haven't told them a thing. Why the hell would I do that? It's our little secret." they said, bringing a finger up in front of their mouth. Lloyd relaxed slightly, glad to hear that his true desires regarding Harumi were still hidden. He was quite terrified of how harshly his friends would react, especially if they knew all that he had done to try and make his dreams a reality.

"But what do you say we go and get back at them anyway? C'mon Lloyd, you know in your heart that they deserve to feel the same misery you do." they prodded.

The offer truly tempted Lloyd for the first time. He had begun to better understand and grasp just how poorly his "friends" had treated him over the years, and that pain was eating away at him. _All of this suffering, all of this grief, don't they deserve to feel the same way?_ he wondered. And w _ith my Golden Power it would be so easy…_

"No!" he screamed, silencing his darker thoughts. "I will not harm my friends, no matter how much you torture me."

The Master of Dreams was somewhat disappointed by his reaction, but it was working. There had been a moment there where Lloyd had considered the idea; actually thought about it. _This is good._ they thought. _I will have him soon enough._

"Oh, that's alright Lloyd. Because you don't have any friends, only those who seek to control you!" they bellowed before sending another cyan beam at him. His head fell down, immediately hitting the hard stone below. The Master of Dreams sauntered over to Lloyd, examining his body with surgical precision. The life was gone from him; his skin a pale white, and he felt extremely cold to their touch. If the Elemental Master wasn't careful, they would end up accidentally killing Lloyd, and that would mess up everything. They relented from inflicting any further wounds this time around, but he wasn't getting any water yet. They were going to bring him to within an inch of death before letting him live.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is going to sound really strange but revisiting these chapters in particular has actually made me somewhat nostalgic for writing psychological torture. I guess nostalgic might not be the right word exactly, but whatever, I think you get what I'm saying. I'll be the first to admit that making fictional characters suffer is always an absolute blast for me, to the point that I almost want to call it addicting.


End file.
